House kills Hegseth impeachment effort

The House of Representatives effectively torpedoed an effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with a procedural vote on Tuesday evening.

The House, by a 211-204 margin, approved a measure that will refer the impeachment resolution to a committee.

That will leave little, if any, time for the committee and full House to act on it before Democrats take over the chamber and the Senate with a new majority in early January. 

House Republican leadership had sought to kill the effort at impeachment, which was initiated Monday by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.

The vote came a week after the midterm elections, where Democrats trounced Republicans in the first congressional election since the Iran war broke out in February.

Hegseth had faced eight articles of impeachment.

Massie accused Hegseth of waging war in contravention of Congress, carrying out extrajudicial killings tied to boat strikes in the Caribbean against purported drug smugglers and suppressing free speech by targeting Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a military veteran.

Massie is a libertarian who lost his Republican primary in May after clashing with President Donald Trump.

The Kentucky Republican led a bill last year to compel the release of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Shortly after the vote, Trump said: “Democrats’ attempt to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has miserably FAILED!”

“Every single Republican, except Thomas Massie, a major LOSER, voted in favor of Pete,” the president said, declaring what he said was an “EXONERATION” of Hegseth.

A Republican forced the vote on Hegseth’s impeachment. All Democrats voted against referring the measure to committee.

Defense Department spokesperson Jacob Bliss said earlier in the day that Hegseth “carried out direct, lawful orders from the President to secure the nation.” The impeachment effort notably focused on Hegseth, not Trump, who is responsible for launching the various military operations referred to in the articles.

Hegseth, at a press conference at the Pentagon earlier Tuesday, railed against Massie and defended his leadership in the Iran war and other military operations.

“What one disgruntled and defeated congressman is attempting is not oversight, and it’s not accountability. It’s a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment,” Hegseth said

“It’s a farce, and it’s a stunt, and everybody knows it,” Hegseth said. “It puts a target on the backs of American warriors by signaling that Congress will undermine their missions in real time.
“This is not patriotism. This is sabotage.”

Trump, in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, said Hegseth “gets an ‘A’ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!”

Trump said Monday that he would stand by Hegseth even if the House impeached him. The president was impeached by the House two times during his first White House term. The Senate acquitted him in both cases.

Republicans hold a slim 218-214 majority in the House.

Some Republicans, notably including Vice President JD Vance, have directly blamed their midterm losses on the Iran war, which continues to see intermittent fighting amid an uneasy stalemate.

Neither of the two Cabinet secretaries impeached by the House has ever been removed by the Senate after a trial in that chamber.