Pete Hegseth spared as House GOP shelves impeachment articles

Résumé détaillé

The Pentagon chief was accused of unlawfully waging a war with Iran, among other illegal wartime actions

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Pete Hegseth has been spared from impeachment — for now — after House Republicans blocked a procedural hurdle that would have led to a vote on accusations against the Pentagon chief.

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky filed articles of impeachment against Hegseth Monday, accusing him of unlawfully waging war in Iran and Yemen, capturing former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and striking suspected drug trafficking boats. Hegseth has vehemently denied the allegations.

The articles first had to pass a procedural vote, but with Republicans still in control of the House until the next Congress convenes in January, the measure failed to advance Tuesday.

The House voted 211-204 to send the articles to the Judiciary Committee, essentially killing the effort.

This isn’t the first time Massie, a vocal Trump critic, has tried to remove Hegseth from office. Massie introduced articles of impeachment against the defense secretary in September over the Iran war, but House Speaker Mike Johnson recessed the House early without a vote on the measure.

Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Massie admitted that several of his colleagues didn’t support all eight articles of impeachment — but he remained determined to find another way to oust Hegseth.

“I’ve heard from several members they agree with some of the Articles of Impeachment but not all of them,” the Republican wrote on X Tuesday. “If the motion to kill my resolution by referring it to committee fails, and we proceed to the Articles themselves, I’ll request a vote on each of the Articles separately.”

Hegseth responded to Massie’s impeachment threat during a rare Pentagon press conference earlier Tuesday.

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