In the run-up to the midterm election, seen by many as a referendum on the Iran war, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth unveiled FORTRESS America — a project to allow U.S. military bases to survive a 90-day siege.
asserted
bases → see → siege
But following the landslide Democratic victory, it’s Hegseth who finds himself increasingly besieged within his own fortress, the Pentagon, and on Capitol Hill where he stands on the brink of bipartisan impeachment.
asserted
he → follow → impeachment
In the wake of an election rout that handed Democrats firm control of the House and the Senate, Hegseth is in the crosshairs of lawmakers whom he has treated with contempt for two years, as he has withheld basic information from Congress and purged bipartisan-backed senior military leaders.
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he → hand → leaders
“One of the first things we’re going to do in the majority, we’re going to run Pete Hegseth out of town,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who is now in line to be speaker of the House, announced at a campaign rally just before Election Day.
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who → go → Day
Asked about the self-styled War Secretary on Wednesday, Jeffries replied: “Is Pete Hegseth still around?”
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Hegseth → ask → Wednesday
As the blue wave crested on Tuesday, storm clouds stacked up on Hegseth’s horizon.
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clouds → crest → horizon
“We’re going to go after Hegseth,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in line to return to the helm of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, announced after cruising to victory on Tuesday.
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DeLauro → go → Tuesday
“LAWYER UP,” Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, posted on X. Both will be joined in the House by Democrat Nancy Lacore, a former Navy admiral who was fired by Hegseth, who declared victory in a traditionally red district in South Carolina.
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who → lawyer → Carolina
By Wednesday evening, sentiment within the Pentagon suggested that Hegseth’s days are numbered, with names of potential replacements already being bandied about.
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names → suggest → replacements
“Dead man walking,” said one official.
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official → walk → ?
A former defense official agreed: “They pinned the failure in Iran on him.
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They → agree → him
Now it’s only a matter of time.”
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it → ’ → time
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, with support from Democrats, is slated to take aim at Hegseth as soon as next week with eight articles of impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors.
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Massie → slat → crimes
With Hegseth increasingly under fire within the ranks, at the Pentagon, and on Capitol Hill, and with rumors swirling that the White House may cut him loose in the face of the staggering electoral defeat, The Intercept spoke with six current and former defense officials as well as additional sources on Capitol Hill, most on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely.
uncertain
Intercept → swirl → anonymity
Hegseth has, they said, undermined the rule of law; irreparably harmed the U.S. military through purges of top commanders and those who refuse to pledge fealty; pursued relentless leak investigations; spurred religious extremism; and diminished the department he leads due to an almost endless raft of scandals, culture-war clownishness, and senseless policies.
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he → say → scandals
One of the officials, Wes J. Bryant — until last year a senior targeting adviser and policy analyst at the Pentagon — gave voice to Massie’s more technical articles of impeachment which indict Hegseth for extrajudicial killings and waging unlawful war, among other crimes.
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which → target → crimes
“He is conducting state terrorism.
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He → conduct → terrorism
He needs to be prosecuted,” said Bryant, who was pushed out of his Pentagon job for blowing the whistle on Hegseth’s efforts to undermine protections for civilians.
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who → need → civilians
Hegseth — a former Army National Guard officer turned Fox News host turned secretary of war — came into office amid a firestorm of scandal from his confirmation process, including a swirl of allegations of financial mismanagement at veterans’ nonprofits where he once worked, excessive drinking and public drunkenness, marital infidelity, and sexual assault.
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he → turn → nonprofits
His reign at the Pentagon has been no less tumultuous and marked by a string of appalling episodes of both major importance and more symbolic disgrace, beginning with Signal-gate — the texting of secret war plans that put troops in harm’s way — and follow-on digital security lapses.
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that → mark → way
The Pentagon’s own inspector general concluded last December that “Hegseth violated security protocols and endangered U.S. troops and objectives by using a personal device to share sensitive operational details on the unclassified messaging app Signal.”
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Hegseth → conclude → app
Those scandals, however, turned out to be the high point of his tenure.
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scandals → turn → tenure
Since then, Hegseth has been under perpetual fire for his purge of top military leaders — many of them women and minorities; an inability to defeat Yemen’s Houthis in 2025 or win the Iran war in 2026; a strike on an elementary school in Minab, Iran, that killed more than 150 civilians, most of them children; his campaign of extrajudicial killings in attacks on so-called drug boats; overlapping efforts to weaken transparency, scuttle accountability, hobble military justice, and undercut protections for civilians in conflict; openly advocating for offering enemies “no quarter,” a war crime; his installation of a Pentagon makeup studio at taxpayer expense; an unnatural and immature fixation with violence; an obsession with troops’ testosterone levels, a censorship campaign that replaced the Pentagon press corps with cheerleading influencers, among other distractions, dysfunctions, and tantrums.
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that → defeat → distractions
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson and other top spokespersons did not respond to detailed questions and repeated requests for comment.
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Wilson → respond → comment
In April, Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., filed six articles of impeachment against Hegseth, including violations of the law of armed conflict and targeting of civilians, abuse of power, and obstructing congressional oversight.
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Ansari → file → oversight
“Impeach Pete Hegseth,” Ansari wrote in a quote tweet of a Hegseth post on X on Wednesday.
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Ansari → impeach → Wednesday
In September, Massie was poised to force a vote to impeach Hegseth on eight charges.
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Massie → poise → charges
As the initiative gained bipartisan momentum, House Speaker Mike Johnson decided to punt and dismissed members of the House before the scheduled vote.
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Johnson → gain → vote
But Massie, who was defeated in a GOP primary in May — the most expensive House primary in history — remains committed to ousting Hegseth and plans to force a vote on the measure.
uncertain
who → defeat → measure
“I give it better than a 50 percent chance of passing,” Massie told Roll Call just prior to Election Day, expressing confidence that all Democrats and some Republicans would join his effort.
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Democrats → give → effort
On Wednesday night, Massie took to X to double down on his commitment.
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Massie → take → commitment
“There is one contingency in which I won’t reintroduce the articles of impeachment,” he wrote.
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he → be → impeachment
“Hegseth resigns.”
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Hegseth → resign → ?
Massie’s office did not return a request for comment.
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office → return → comment
In the wake of Tuesday’s stunning electoral landslide, a senior Hill staffer told The Intercept that he believed mounting anger might cause top outgoing Republicans to vote to impeach Hegseth.
uncertain
Republicans → tell → Hegseth
“There are very angry senior Republicans in the national security space who honestly pin a lot of their election losses on him.
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who → be → him
They are furious,” he said.
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he → say → ?
“They need some place to put their anger.
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They → need → anger
So they’re asking themselves, ‘What is even the harm in voting to impeach Hegseth?”
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they → ask → Hegseth
“Democratic leadership wants to focus on people’s everyday lives and affordability, not impeaching Hegseth.
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leadership → want → Hegseth
…and 118 more, not listed.
The Aporia
