Transcript of Hegseth Turns on Trump as Impeachment Arrives

We're covering Hegseth's press conference, the impeachment vote, internal White House panic—all while right now documents are being destroyed inside various departments. Why? Because they fear oversight by Congress. Lots to cover. If you can, subscribe to support this work. As always, there are the threats against journalism, and the threats against journalists are rising, and I need your support. Like, comment, share. And let's begin with the impeachment. Pete Hegseth held his first press conference since May this morning, and his main defense was, "Let's point at my boss."

Here is what he said about the 8 articles of impeachment: quote, "Iran, the cartels, Maduro, Yemen, everyone was a lawful operation. Ordered by the commander in chief, then ordered by myself, notified to Congress, and executed by the American warriors doing their jobs."

This is the job, and it's the job well done.

And then he turned on the troops in the room, saying, "You hate the president," or the reporters in the room, my bad, saying, "You hate the president more than you love our country or our troops." But before he even walked in, his team did something unprecedented that should allow everyone, that should alarm everyone who cares about a free press. A security agent warned reporters they would be physically removed from the briefing if they were not professional and did not maintain decorum. When reporters asked whether that meant no shouted questions, they never got a clear answer. One reporter in the room wrote, quote, "It's the first time any of us could ever remember being threatened like this."

Another journalist called it "crazy time." The White House has never even threatened to expel reporters like this. This is the same Pentagon that has already expelled its traditional press corps and imposed new credentialing rules. Massey's articles of impeachment specifically cite those moves as undermining independent oversight, and as a journalist, I'll tell you plainly, shouted questions are part of the job. Threatening to physically remove reporters for asking them? That's not normal. Now the vote, today, it's happening—at least it begins today. It's a complicated situation in the House of Representatives, and it's going to take many, many votes and many, many hours before we ever get to an impeachment vote.

The final vote on impeachment likely won't occur until tomorrow, but today they will begin voting on part of the resolution. The first vote, coming around at least 5:30, but could be later, will be on a procedural motion to kill the resolution in an effort to try to send it to a committee. Massey wrote, quote, "If we can overcome that effort, we will proceed to real debate and vote on the articles of impeachment." So this is the first test. If it survives, each of the 8 articles will then get their own roll call. And here's what makes this so unpredictable: Ted Cruz, a Trump ally, said that either Pete Hegseth will step down or Trump will fire him, because if he is impeached, it'll almost certainly pass.

Representative Jared Huffman, who's about to chair the committee that oversees Interior, is sending letters today ordering agencies to preserve every record and to identify and recover any deleted information. These projects include the ballroom, include the Triumphial Arch, include the East Potomac Golf Course. Now, think about this for a second. If there is nothing to hide, if there are no issues, why delete documents? Why try to scrub information before Congress is able to get their hands on it?

And the truth is, maybe they don't want paper trails. But even setting that part aside, because this is the federal government, there are strict preservation requirements for documents. You have the Presidential Records Act, which requires preservation of all of the president's records, but there are also rules and regulations governing documents throughout the federal government, throughout the executive branch. You can't just shred communications, shred government contracts, and other key documents that provide kind of the trail for Trump's various construction projects in Washington, D.C.

That is unlawful. It is illegal. And to do it in an effort to avoid oversight is obstruction of justice. Clear cut. Now we'll ultimately see whether these whistleblowers testify on Capitol Hill, and they very well may. And we'll have to see whether or not Hegseth faces impeachment today. Will the Republicans show up? Will the Republicans save him? That's a question for those on Capitol Hill. And even let's say Hegseth is not impeached today.

Starting in January, there will be more than enough votes to make it a reality once Democrats take over the House of Representatives. So we'll see what happens. I'll have more updates for you throughout the day. Make sure, if you can, subscribe to support this work, like, comment, share, and spread the word, because it is very, very important that people know what's happening in Congress today.