WASHINGTON — In a move that will delay an impeachment vote for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, House lawmakers today opted to refer the impeachment resolution to the House Judiciary Committee for further consideration.
The motion passed on a 211 to 204 vote and concerned eight articles of impeachment introduced Monday by Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie. In a social media post today, Massie called the floor vote a “procedural motion to kill the resolution.”
In a 34-page resolution [PDF], Massie charged the defense secretary with committing “high crimes and misdemeanors” and called him “a threat to the Constitution if allowed to remain in office.”
More specifically, the eight articles of impeachment centered on:
- Three involving violations of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 related to military operations against Iran;
- Alleged violations of laws intended to minimize civilian casualties, citing the US military strike on an Iranian elementary school that killed or injured more than 200 people;
- Suppressing free speech through retaliation against Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain, for appearing in a video advising service members of their duty to disobey unlawful orders;
- The kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the resolution describes as a sovereign foreign leader;
- Conducting an “unlawful” war in Yemen; and
- Extrajudicial killings tied to the strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.
The vote effectively puts the impeachment effort on ice for the remainder of the current Congress, sending Massie’s resolution to the House Judiciary Committee rather than allowing it to advance toward a floor vote. The committee can choose to consider the articles of impeachment, but it is not obligated to take them up. Without further action, the resolution is unlikely to advance before the current Congress ends.
The referral does not permanently foreclose impeachment proceedings against Hegseth. Any effort to revive the matter when the next Congressis sworn in next year, however, would require lawmakers to introduce a new resolution and begin the process again.
Ahead of today’s vote, Hegseth held his first press conference at the Pentagon in six months and used the stage to push back against the impeachment charges by saying they stemmed from “policy disagreements.”
“What one disgruntled and defeated congressman is attempting is not oversight, and it’s not accountability,” Hegseth told reporters Tuesday. “It’s a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment.”
“I stand behind every one of these operations. I was proud to execute them, and I would do it again tomorrow,” he later said.
The House has only impeached two cabinet secretaries: Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024. (Though Hegseth refers to himself as the Secretary of War, his official title remains Secretary of Defense.) Neither was convicted by the Senate.
For now, President Donald Trump is publicly backing his sitting defense secretary, taking to social media Tuesday to write, “‘A’ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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