The House on Tuesday night voted to refer a resolution introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to impeach US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee, effectively killing the effort to oust the Pentagon chief.
The measure to block the impeachment passed in a vote of 211 to 204, with 11 Democrats and seven Republicans not voting. Massie was the lone Republican who voted against referring his resolution, despite reports suggesting there would be more GOP defectors.
The House shielded Hegseth from the impeachment despite the overwhelming rejection of the Iran wars among American voters, which was seen as one of the top factors in the Republican defeat in the midterm elections. Once the Democrat-led Congress is sworn in this January, efforts to oust Hegseth are expected to be revived.
Massie’s resolution included eight articles of impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanors” relating to the war with Iran, the bombing campaign against alleged drug boats, the US attack on Venezuela to abduct President Nicolas Maduro, Hegseth’s ignoring of US laws meant to minimize civilian casualties, the 2025 US bombing campaign in Yemen, and Hegseth’s efforts to chill the constitutionally protected speech of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ).
Hegseth held a press conference on Tuesday morning defending himself, where he called the impeachment effort a “farce,” and President Trump and Vice President JD Vance put out posts backing the embattled Pentagon chief.
At his press conference on Monday, Massie stressed that he wasn’t seeking Hegseth’s impeachment because he was bad at his job, but because he is operating in violation of the law, and he encouraged other lawmakers to read eight articles.
“A lot of people are saying, ‘I think Pete Hegseth is effective. He’s good at his job, and so I don’t want to vote for these articles of impeachment.’ Well, the reality is, we’re not impeaching him for being bad at his job. In fact, he was very effective at killing schoolchildren in Iran,” Massie said, referring to the February 28 US strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, southern Iran, which killed at least 156 civilians, including 120 children.
“He was very effective at extrajudicial killings. There’s no argument in these impeachment articles that he’s ineffective. The argument here is that he’s broken laws and he’s violated the Constitution,” he added.
