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WASHINGTON — The House voted to scrap impeachment articles against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for carrying out military operations without congressional approval.
The vote was 211-204 to send the articles of impeachment to the House Judiciary Committee — effectively killing the resolution on the floor.
Libertarian-leaning Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) had introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth, who took the unprecedented step as the Pentagon honcho of campaigning against his reelection bid earlier this year.
Most of the articles revolved around alleged violations of the War Powers Act, including three over the military operations in Iran, one over the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, and one for carrying out military attacks against Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
Massie’s impeachment articles also accused Hegseth of flouting laws aimed at minimizing civilian casualties, one for free speech violations against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and one for “extrajudicial killings” on alleged drug boats.
Ahead of the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) expressed confidence that Republicans had the support needed to quash the impeachment effort. President Trump and the White House fiercely defended Hegseth.
In September, GOP leadership is believed to have adjourned early to avoid having to take a vote on Massie’s impeachment effort.
Hegseth struck a defiant tone earlier Tuesday.
“I stand behind every one of these operations. I was proud to execute them, and I would do it again tomorrow,” he declared to reporters in a press conference on Tuesday.
“For the first time in American history, a cabinet secretary overseeing America’s military is being attacked not for losing conflicts with our enemies, but for winning them,” he added. “Condemned not for defeat, but for military victory. The disgruntled congressman even admitted this.”
But the biggest risk Hegseth faces is the next Congress, when Democrats will have their largest House majority this century and control of the Senate.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) described himself as a “hard yes on the Hegseth resolution,” teasing that Dems could try to impeach him again.
Defenders of Hegseth insisted that he didn’t commit high crimes or misdemeanors and was merely carrying out Trump’s orders.
“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 the impeachment clause, the proper remedy for a policy disagreement. It’s legislation. It’s debate,” Hegseth argued.
The secretary of war also predicted that history “will judge the Iran war quite differently than conventional wisdom.”
In May, Hegseth made an unusual trip to Kentucky to campaign against Massie in his primary race against now-Rep.-elect Ed Gallrein (R-Ky.) Usually, the head of the Pentagon eschews campaign politics.
“Too often Massie’s instinct is to throw elbows at fellow Republicans instead of the people who are destroying our country or want to destroy our country,” Hegseth said at a rally against Massie. “In the middle of a fight, you don’t weaken your own side.”
Only two cabinet secretaries have been impeached in US history: former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the border crisis in 2024, and former Secretary of War William Belknap over bribery accusations in 1876. The Senate declined a trial over Mayorkas, and Belknap was acquitted by the upper chamber.
