{"text":[[{"start":10.326,"text":"The US House of Representatives has blocked an effort to impeach Pete Hegseth, allowing the defence secretary to survive in his job for now."}],[{"start":17.44,"text":"Republicans, who still control the House until the new Democratic majority takes over in January, closed ranks behind Hegseth to stop the impeachment motion from advancing to a final vote in the lower chamber of Congress."}],[{"start":30.437,"text":"The outcome was a victory for President Donald Trump and Hegseth. The defence secretary had decried the impeachment as a “farce”, framing calls for his removal from office as an attack on the nation and its military by those seeking to “damage” the US."}],[{"start":44.4,"text":"“Make no mistake about what is happening,” Hegseth said at a combative news conference hours before the House took up his case."}],[{"start":52.471,"text":"“This is not about me.” Rather, it is the “politicians in Washington” who are attacking American troops, he said."}],[{"start":59.527,"text":"Thomas Massie, a Republican lawmaker from Kentucky and prominent critic of the president, on Monday filed articles of impeachment accusing Hegseth of abusing his power and flouting the constitution by directing military operations against Iran without congressional authorisation."}],[{"start":75.378,"text":"In the end, Massie was the only Republican who voted to advance impeachment along with most Democrats. Eleven Democrats were absent from the vote, which also contributed to Hegseth’s survival."}],[{"start":86.634,"text":"Hegseth framed Massie’s move as a “step” in a wider plan to prosecute ordinary soldiers. “Put the secretary on trial today, and the men and women who carried out those orders tomorrow,” he said."}],[{"start":98.018,"text":"A House vote to impeach the defence secretary would not have led to his removal from office unless the Senate convicted him, which is seen as a much higher hurdle to clear. But Hegseth could face a threat to his job in the new Democratic Congress next year."}],[{"start":111.12,"text":"After the vote, Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, said: “Tonight, House Republicans rejected the clear message from the election and instead circled the wagons and doubled down on Trump’s war with Iran. Republicans voted to shield secretary of defence Pete Hegseth from accountability.”"}],[{"start":129.452,"text":"Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor, has faced mounting criticism on Capitol Hill for hollowing out the US military’s top ranks in a controversial overhaul, which he claimed had revived a “warrior ethos”. Lawmakers have also accused him of mishandling the Iran war and of carrying out legally dubious campaigns against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific."}],[{"start":152.39,"text":"“This is all politics,” Hegseth said earlier on Tuesday, accusing the media of being unable to acknowledge “the military’s success because they . . . hate the president more than you love our country or our troops”."}],[{"start":163.92,"text":"Trump has signalled his intention to stand by his defence secretary after Republicans last week lost their majority in the House and Senate in a bruising midterm election defeat that vice-president JD Vance credited to “the war”."}],[{"start":176.263,"text":"Fuel prices have surged since the president launched the Iran war in February, stemming energy exports from the top oil-producing region."}],[{"start":184.4,"text":"The president wrote on social media on Tuesday evening: “The Democrats’ attempt to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has miserably FAILED!”"}],[{"start":192.304,"text":"“Again, Victories in Venezuela and Iran, the Best Recruitment Numbers in the History of the Military (Long waiting lists to get in!), and Spirit like rarely seen before, led to the EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot,” he added in a post on Truth Social."}],[{"start":208.32,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1794362900_3262.mp3"}