Late-night host John Oliver has engaged in an episode-long rebuke of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
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Oliver → engage → Hegseth
Oliver, 49, eagerly called on Congress to impeach the conservative during Sunday's edition of Last Week Tonight.
Paving the way for the marathon drubbing was the series of unexpected election defeats for Republicans this past Tuesday.
Oliver wasted no time painting Hegseth, 46, as partially responsible.
Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries earlier in the day told ABC News he would support impeaching the defense secretary for perceived 'abuse[s] of power.'
A bipartisan resolution to impeach the former Fox News host hit the House floor on Monday, forcing a vote on the matter that could take place as soon as this week.
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that → call → week
Oliver spent more than a half-hour giddily homing in on blunders from the secretary since he assumed his post, like disclosing classified war plans to a journalist on a commercial app last year and a promised purge of the US military's generals and admirals set to go into effect by January 1.
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he → spend → January
Last Week Tonight Host John Oliver, 49, repeatedly called on Congress to impeach Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth during Sunday's show
'It sounds less like an inspiring piece of oratory and more like he’s reading from a book called Dr Seuss for Concussed Bigots,' Oliver said after playing a snippet of the September 30 speech.
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Oliver → call → speech
Hegseth told active-duty officers in Quantico, Virginia, the 20 percent cut to the US military's generals and admirals would help achieve a policy of, 'No fatties, no tr***ies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals.
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cut → tell → fatties
'Unfortunately for Hegseth, a man obsessed with optics from day one in his job, things haven't looked great,' Oliver continued.
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Oliver → obsess → job
'Early on, there was the Signal-gate fiasco,' he reminded, referring to a name regularly used to describe the March 2025 saga and the secretary's misuse of the publicly available messenger app Signal.
Hegseth shared plans to strike Houthi fighters then stationed in Yemen to members of a group chat powered by the app, where another member inadvertently added Atlantic Editor Jeffrey Goldberg earlier on.
'And more recently, there's been the war in Iran, which has been an utter fiasco that's achieved none of this administration's original goals,' Oliver added.
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Oliver → be → goals
'Not only has there been no regime change, the straight of Hormuz is now under Iranian control and there seems to be no easy way out of this conflict.'
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straight → seem → conflict
Allegations of war crimes in the Caribbean followed, as Oliver referenced the multiple US military strikes on drug boats in the Caribbean last year.
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Oliver → follow → Caribbean
Democrats have previously framed the strikes as clear violations of humanitarian law.
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Democrats → frame → law
The late night host spent virtually the entire show to Hegseth lambasting Hegseth, after bipartisan resolution to impeach the former Fox News host hit the House floor on Monday.
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resolution → spend → Monday
A vote could take place this week
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vote → take → place
'Some close to the president have apparently expressed frustration that he's not being honest about the state of the war,' Oliver needled, citing a November 1 report from The Atlantic.
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Oliver → express → Atlantic
Oliver repeatedly claimed Hegseth's performance has irreparably damaged the US military.
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performance → claim → military
He also offered viewers a series of so-called 'red flags' he said should have tipped them off about the 'unbelievably stupid' personnel decisions to come.
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he → offer → decisions
It features the Latin phrase 'Deus Vult,' or, 'God Wills It.'
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God → feature → It
Critics, like Oliver, have painted Hegseth's use of the words as evidence of an extremist ideology.
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Critics → paint → ideology
'By the way, he paid $50,000 to a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017,' Oliver went on, noting that Hegseth denies the allegations.
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Hegseth → pay → allegations
'Our dealings with the Pentagon this week have at times felt like dealing with a bunch of d*ckhead teenagers,' Oliver added, revealing the Pentagon's response when contacted by staffers from his show for comment.
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Oliver → feel → comment
The host said a Pentagon spokesman told him, in part, 'Deport John Oliver.'
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spokesman → say → Oliver
Oliver hails from the UK.
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Oliver → hail → UK
He later obtained US citizenship.
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He → obtain → citizenship
'Hopefully Congress will fix what it never should have allowed to happen in the first place and remove him from office.'
He concluded the lengthy missive by calling Hegseth a 'dipsh*t who ruins everything.'
The Daily Mail has approached the White House for comment.
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Mail → fix → comment
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