Hegseth Survives Impeachment Effort in House

Résumé détaillé

GOP leaders succeeded in blocking Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s impeachment push.

WASHINGTON–Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fended off an impeachment effort Tuesday evening in the House, after GOP votes helped to kill the effort to punish him for his actions as President Trump’s Pentagon chief.

The House voted to refer the articles of impeachment proposed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.) back to the Judiciary Committee for consideration, effectively blocking the effort for now. The vote was 211 to 204.

House Democrats are expected to revive the effort when they take control of Congress in January.

Ahead of the vote, Hegseth mounted a vigorous defense of his record in a rare news conference. He called Massie a “disgruntled and defeated congressman” and said the impeachment articles were framed as policy disagreements and nothing more.

“That’s what it is: policy disagreements, not high crimes, not misdemeanors, not treason, not bribery, not the kinds of offenses the founders intended when they wrote impeachment laws,” Hegseth said.

Trump said he would “stand by” Hegseth if he were impeached and praised the secretary’s press conference. “Pete Hegseth gets an ‘A’ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense,” Trump wrote on social media Tuesday immediately following the Pentagon briefing.

The impeachment articles allege that the U.S. war on Iran, without a formal declaration of war or congressional approval, is illegal. Massie accused Hegseth of dismantling a system intended to minimize civilian casualties, noting the Minab school bombing in Iran this year that killed more than 150 people including dozens of children.

The articles further allege that Hegseth’s use of lethal military force against suspected drug-smuggling boats is illegal, and that he abused the Pentagon’s powers by trying to punish Sen. Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.), a retired Navy captain, for urging troops to disobey unlawful orders.

Massie’s impeachment articles call out the military’s capture and kidnap of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, which it carried out at Trump’s direction.

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