Massie Press Gaggle on the Hegseth Impeachment Articles
Capitol Hill stakeout the day Massie filed eight articles against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
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- Well, first, first I want to ask you about your attempt to impeach and remove Pete Hegseth. Can you tell me more about that and why you're
- choosing to do that today? >> Well, we've exhausted all the other remedies that I can think of. We passed a concurrent resolution in the House and the Senate. The White House is now
- saying we're just going to ignore that law. They've run past the 60-day clock in the War Powers Resolution of 1973. They said, "Oh, we're going to stop the war and restart it every time we get to
- the end of the clock." They have done everything possible to violate our our ability or to abrogate our
- authority to declare war and to decide when it starts and it ends. So, also, I don't want to let them normalize the things that they're doing. Peter Hegseth
- within the Department of Defense has turned off and the ability to make sure they don't target civilian
- objects. And so, that's why you saw at the very first day of the war, there was a a whole school of schoolgirls that got
- blown up. And that's a direct result of the culture and the policies that he's instituted at the Department of Defense.
- >> Do you expect votes to happen on Thursday or do you think that they will cancel votes? >> I think probably what they'll do is vote
- on this and vote on a motion to table. That's probably what they'll do. I would try to persuade my colleagues not to vote to table the motion and that that
- isn't necessarily a show of support for the resolution. That maybe some of my colleagues will say, "Well, I don't support it now, but I think we should have a debate." And if and if I get to
- that point, I do expect they'll cancel Congress. But that won't get Peter Hegseth out of the news, so to speak. We come
- back after the election and it'll be the same members of Congress. >> Did you give leadership heads-up? >> I didn't give anybody heads-up because
- when they found out I was doing the Epstein discharge petition they canceled 2 weeks of Congress and I think if they found out I was going to do this they might have canceled even more days.
- >> How did you come around to Pete Hegseth for impeachment versus other cabinet officials? >> Um
- he's done the most impeachable things of any cabinet officials. I mean we've got eight articles of impeachment, well researched, legally grounded,
- whether it's Venezuela, Yemen, Iran, targeting of civilians in Iran, or you know, squashing the first amendment
- rights of Senator Mike Kelly. Um and Venezuela, going in and kidnapping a head of state. Like he's
- he's racked up the most trophies if if if trophies are violations of the Constitution. >> I would have expected it to be Todd Blanche because he has not, you know,
- fulfilled the requirements of the Epstein files, which is something you've pointed out a lot of times. >> So, here's another reason to do Pete Hegseth now and not Todd Blanche yet is
- because we still have legislative vehicles available to us to get those Epstein files. I've got Epstein files too. I only need one more Republican. I
- think we're going to get that before the end of the year. So, there's still legislative vehicles. The The Secretary of War though is ignoring all of the
- legislative vehicles. Like he's legally required because we passed a concurrent resolution in the House and the Senate to withdraw from hostilities. He's
- legally required to withdraw from hostilities cuz they've gone past the 60-day window. He's legally required to reinstate the department and and the
- people that were working to minimize civilian casualties that he got rid of. He's legally required to do all these things. He's operating outside of the
- law and there's no other place to adjudicate this, no other way that I can see other than an impeachment. >> But do you think that you could get enough Democrats on board to maybe sign
- on to this impeachment with Mr. Hexad? >> Um I I think I'll have enough Democrats. The question is, can we get enough Republicans? >> Have you spoken to any Republicans
- yourself that have hinted at voting for this? >> No, I didn't tell anybody because again, I was afraid if it got out, they would just cancel more of Congress like they did when I did the Epstein discharge
- petition last week. >> How long have you been mulling over this? >> Um two or three months. I mean, it takes a long time. I found a
- couple typos even while I was reading it. I take full responsibility for them. But, you know, we this is like the 50th iteration.
- >> So, why now? >> Again, because we've exhausted all the other legal avenues for reigning in the war department
- um for all of the things that they've done. >> We've heard Trump and Speaker Johnson and others say that the war will come to an end very shortly after the election. What do you make of that line as people
- are frustrated with this war ahead of an election? >> The grain of truth to what they're saying is that Iran is not going to come to the table until after the election,
- right? What What they should say is there's no chance to end this war uh until after the election if you're relying on Iran making some deal.
- Uh and then to say that it's going to end after the election, I believe that as much as I believe the $5,000 checks.
- All right. Thank you all.
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