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 Donald Trump’s Pentagon chief. It spared him a potentially damaging vote after the Republicans suffered heavy losses in last week’s midterm elections.
Republican leaders and White House officials worked behind the scenes to derail the initiative, brought by Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, multiple sources told CNN.
On Tuesday, enough Republicans backed the leadership’s efforts to prevent the impeachment measure from reaching a vote on the House floor. Instead, lawmakers voted 211-204 to refer the charges to a committee, effectively allowing the process to be stalled indefinitely.
Only one Republican, Massie, voted with Democrats against referring the measure to the committee.
Reacting to the vote, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “The Democrats’ attempt to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has miserably FAILED! Every single Republican, except Thomas Massie, a major LOSER, voted in favor of Pete. Again, Victories in Venezuela and Iran, the Best Recruitment Numbers in the History of the Military (Long waiting lists to get in!), and Spirit like rarely seen before, led to the EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot.”
The decision spared Republicans from having to vote on eight impeachment charges against Hegseth. They included allegations that he violated the Constitution by launching military operations in Iran and elsewhere without congressional authorisation, failed to comply with laws intended to limit civilian casualties, and abused his office by retaliating against a senator over public remarks.
The vote was a show of unity from a Republican Party weakened by divisions and last week’s election defeats. The midterm results were shaped in part by voter dissatisfaction with the Iran war.
Hours before the vote, Hegseth had defended his record at a Pentagon news briefing, dismissing criticism of the military operations cited in the impeachment articles.
“I stand behind every one of these operations,” he said. “I was proud to execute them, and I would do it again tomorrow.”
Vice-President JD Vance also came to Hegseth’s defence, describing the impeachment effort as political theatre.
In a social media post, Vance argued that Congress had “many tools for registering its policy disagreements” without resorting to impeachment.
“Has Pete Hegseth committed impeachable crimes?” he wrote. “The question is absurd and the answer is: obviously not.”
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.
However, 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.
