自封的“战争部长”皮特·赫格塞斯正面临来自其自己党内一名成员提出的弹劾条款——指控包括违反美国宪法以及指挥军队实施导致大规模平民死亡的非法行动。但在周二早些时候的新闻发布会上，这位前福克斯新闻主持人态度强硬。
Pete Hegseth, the self-styled secretary of war, is facing articles of impeachment introduced by a member of his own party—on allegations including violating the US Constitution and directing the military to carry out illegal actions that led to mass civilian death. But in a press conference early Tuesday, the former Fox News host was defiant.
“这不是爱国主义，”赫格塞斯在六个多月来的首次五角大楼新闻发布会上说。“这是破坏活动。”随后，他花了半小时为自己的履历辩护。他将极不得人心的伊朗战争描述为一场胜利（“历史对伊朗战争的评判将与当下的常规认知截然不同”），并指出在他任内，战争中死亡的美国人不多（“为了对比一下，越战20年我们损失了6万美国人；朝鲜战争仅三年就损失了3.7万”）。根据皮特·赫格塞斯自己的说法，皮特·赫格塞斯干得非常出色。
“This is not patriotism,” Hegseth said, in his first Pentagon news conference in over six months. “This is sabotage.”He then spent half an hour defending his own record. He framed the wildly unpopular war on Iran as a victory (“History will judge the Iran war quite differently than the conventional wisdom right now”) and noted that during his tenure, not many Americans have died in war (“For perspective, we lost 60,000 Americans in Vietnam over 20 years; we lost 37,000 in Korea over just three years”). Pete Hegseth, according to Pete Hegseth, has been very good at his job.
“媒体永远不会承认军队的成功，因为他们，你们，比爱我们的国家和军队更恨总统，”他对在场的记者说，据报道，在简报会前记者们被告知，如果他们“越界”，将会被“强行带走”。
“The media can never admit the military’s success, because they, you, hate the president more than they love our country and our troops,” he said to the assembled journalists, who were reportedly told before the briefing that if they “get out of line” they would be “removed physically.”
倾向自由意志主义的肯塔基州共和党众议员托马斯·马西（Thomas Massie）是推动弹劾的主导者，他昨天表示，他致力于将赫格塞斯（Hegseth）免职，旨在维护法治。“我们不是因为他干不好工作而起诉他，”马西对记者说。“事实上，他在伊朗杀害学童方面非常有效。他在法外处决方面非常有效……这里的论点是，他违反了法律，违背了宪法。”
Rep. Thomas Massie, the libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican who is spearheading the impeachment push, said yesterday that his effort to remove Hegseth from office was intended to protect the rule of law. “We’re not indicting him for being bad at his job,” Massie told reporters. “In fact, he was very effective at killing schoolchildren in Iran. He was very effective at extrajudicial killings…The argument here is that he’s broken laws and he’s violated the Constitution.”
马西提出的八项弹劾条款指控赫格塞斯违反宪法；法外杀害“至少221名据称在加勒比海和东太平洋洋面、主要在公海上走私毒品的船只上的人员”；以及下达军事命令导致伊朗“沙贾雷赫·泰耶贝小学（Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School）超过200名平民死亡或受伤”。一位联合国专家在9月辩称，美国针对涉嫌贩毒船只的袭击可能构成危害人类罪。同一个月，另一项联合国调查任务得出结论，伊朗的学校袭击可能构成战争罪。
Massie’s eight articles of impeachment accuse Hegseth of violating the Constitution; of extrajudicially killing “at least 221 persons aboard seagoing vessels alleged to be smuggling narcotics in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific Ocean, principally in international waters”; and of military orders leading to the death or injury of “more than 200 civilians at the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School” in Iran. A UN expert argued in September that US attacks against alleged drug boats may constitute crimes against humanity. A separate UN fact-finding mission that same month concluded that the school strike in Iran may have constituted a war crime.
赫格塞斯周二上午表示，“每一次都是合法行动。”马西称，赫格塞斯的行为构成“重罪和轻罪”。现在将由马西的同事们决定他们相信谁。
Hegseth said Tuesday morning that “every one was a lawful operation.”Massie says Hegseth’s actions amount to “high crimes and misdemeanors.”Now it will be up to Massie’s colleagues to decide who they believe.