About 6 in 10 surveyed voters called U.S. military action in Iran wrong
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will meet reporters on Tuesday in his first press conference in more than 180 days, as Congress is expected to consider an impeachment resolution over the Iran war. Hegseth said Monday that he is eager to litigate the policy choices he and President Donald Trump made in Iran and Venezuela.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie has pushed the impeachment resolution forward over the objections of House GOP leadership, as momentum grows to hold Hegseth accountable for the Iran war. Many Republicans blame the conflict for the party’s midterm election losses.
Hegseth’s public defense of the war came after last week’s voters overwhelmingly showed the unpopularity of the conflict, according to the findings that followed. The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 voters in the United States, found that about 6 in 10 said the United States made the “wrong decision” in taking military action against Iran, though the survey suggested the Iran war was not the top issue for most voters.
Only about one-third of voters said the war in Iran was “crucial” to shaping how they voted for Congress. That was well below the roughly half who said the cost of living or government corruption was crucial, according to the poll.
Hegseth framed his defense around the troops and their accomplishments. “If you want to take issue with what we did in Epic Fury or Rough Rider or nabbing Nicolás Maduro, you’re taking issue with the troops and what they accomplished, which is historic,” he told reporters Monday.
He also defended Trump’s decision to start the war with Iran, calling it a “bold move” and arguing, “as the president points out so clearly — you can’t let crazy Islamists have a nuclear bomb.” “The choice was don’t act and wish it away or take a bold move, which the president did with Midnight Hammer, which we’ve done with Epic Fury,” Hegseth said, referring to the code names for the strike on Iranian nuclear facilities and the larger war.
Hegseth said the press conference would address the expected impeachment resolution, with his defense centered on the choices behind the conflict and the accomplishments he has attributed to U.S. troops.