Hegseth Dodges Impeachment, for Now. And Tom Morello on Fighting for the World You Want

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth narrowly avoided impeachment on Tuesday, but his future is anything but secure as an enraged Democratic caucus prepares to take control of both the House and Senate in January.

“Tick, tock! Get ready, asshole, because we’re coming,” Congress member-elect Richard Ojeda, D-N.C., warned Hegseth at a press conference on Wednesday. Ojeda told The Intercept that he planned not only to impeach Hegseth but also to bring criminal charges against him.

On Tuesday, the House declined to move forward with impeachment proceedings introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., which accused Hegseth of multiple “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Massie accused Hegseth of illegally waging war against both Iran and Yemen and of overseeing extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.

This week on The Intercept Briefing, co-host Jessica Washington speaks with Nick Turse, Intercept senior national security reporter and editor of Tom Dispatch, about Hegseth’s legacy as “secretary of war.”

"Hegseth can spin it any way he likes," says Turse. "He can use the troops as a shield, claiming that indictments of him are indictments of them. But in the end, he's got a lot to answer for on his own, and none of it's because he's doing a good job." Turse adds: "It's because he's committing high crimes."

Co-host Jordan Uhl also sits down with musician and guitarist Tom Morello about his decades-long fight against forever wars and his resistance to fascism.

“My career has basically been rebellion as self-care,” says Morello. “But in this day and age, every act of art is an act of resistance. Every truth spoken is a light in the gathering darkness. And every song sung has the potential to be a trumpet of a bulwark against the rising tide of authoritarianism to help sound the bell for current and future generations to continue to fight for a more just and peaceful and decent planet.”

Full transcript: https://interc.pt/3WH1Pbb

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