Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had the audience laughing with a clever joke at the expense of current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth while speaking at an event supporting out congressional candidate, Cait Conley, in New York.
“Speaker [Mike] Johnson sent them [members of Congress] all home,” Buttigieg noted during his comments at the event after listing out several problems Americans face. “And you know why? It’s because he didn’t want to have to take a vote on impeaching Pete Hegseth.”
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“By the way, can I just say,” he continued, blasting his fellow Pete: “Not every Secretary Pete is the same.”
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Buttigieg was referring to a vote scheduled for today (Thursday) in the House to impeach the Defense Secretary, according to The Hill, introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY). The measure reportedly caught the GOP leadership off guard, and Republicans, who control the House, canceled Congress on Thursday to go to recess early. The measure will now come up for a vote during the lame duck session after the November elections at the earliest.
Republicans “are such incredible cowards,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said. “Mike Johnson and Donald Trump are so afraid that the Republicans and Democrats in Congress would vote for that resolution of impeachment and that it would pass because they know that what Pete Hegseth has done, his role in driving us into this war, is absolutely wrong, and he needs to be held accountable for it.”
Johnson, though, denied that the decision to vacate the House early had anything to do with Hegseth.
“It’s a stunt,” he said, referring to Massie’s resolution. “Secretary Hegseth has done an extraordinary job in the Department of War. We’re in the middle of international conflicts right now, and we should not be playing games with national security. And I think that’s how the members see this.”
“Right now, it almost feels like a pointless exercise for us to continue sending and stacking legislation over there, when members could be in their districts campaigning in this very fateful moment.”
The Hill notes that, while Congress generally takes a break for elections, it’s very unusual to start the break this early in the year.
In another social media post, Buttigieg linked Johnson’s decision to close Congress to his attempts to block votes on matters like the Epstein files.
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