Pete Hegseth

The Guardian - Hegseth says Iran war was a 'necessary undertaking' despite Republicans blaming conflict for midterms defeat. After several Republicans, including vice-president JD Vance, said that the party’s shellacking in the midterm elections was due to the ongoing Iran war and spike in prices as a result of the conflict, Hegseth danced around whether he agreed.

“I respect the vice-president greatly, and I’m certainly not going to exchange in any finger pointing. And thankfully, politics is not really my thing,” the defense secretary said. “But I agree with what the president said when he said: ‘hey, if if I had to do this all over again, would we do it again? Absolutely.”

Hegseth referred back to secretary of state Marco Rubio’s sentiment that the war, now in its eighth month, is “not necessarily popular, but it may have been necessary”.

“That’s certainly how I feel. It was a necessary undertaking,” Hegseth added.

.... Following Pete Hegseth’s press conference, Donald Trump issued a brief, and glowing, assessment of his defense secretary’s performance, while blasting the Republican representative who is moving to impeach him.

“Pete Hegseth gets an ‘A’ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!” the president wrote on Truth Social.