House Republicans Kill the Hegseth Impeachment, but Ernst Has ‘Serious Questions’
The Republican-led House voted 211-204 on Tuesday to send Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) resolution impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee, effectively killing it, CBS News reported.
Massie was the only Republican to vote with Democrats to keep his eight-article resolution alive. Republicans backed the motion 210-1, all 203 Democrats who voted opposed it, and Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, listed as an independent, voted yes, the House clerk’s roll call shows.
The vote capped a day that Hegseth opened with a Pentagon news conference denouncing the effort. “It’s a farce, and it’s a stunt and everybody knows it,” Hegseth said, NBC News reported.
He argued that every operation Massie cited was lawful. “We destroyed terror regimes’ capabilities. We sank the boats carrying poison into our communities. We put a narco dictator in handcuffs. These are not high crimes. This is the job, and it’s the job well done,” he said.
President Donald Trump cheered the result on Truth Social, calling it an “EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot” and adding, “The Democrats continue to weaponize and abuse the United States of America. They must be stopped!” Earlier he had called Massie “a TOTAL LOSER!”
Massie, who lost his primary earlier this year and leaves Congress in January, pressed his case before the vote. “Somebody’s got to put their foot down and say, are we going to follow the laws that are on the books? Are we going to follow the Constitution?” he said.
The resolution charged Hegseth with waging the Iran war without a declaration of war or authorization from Congress and continuing it past the War Powers Resolution’s 60-day limit.
Other articles accused him of directing “extrajudicial killings” in strikes on suspected drug boats, the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, an unlawful war in Yemen and retaliation against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).
Even some Republican critics of Hegseth balked. Outgoing Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said, “I don’t really align with the impeachment itself,” though he said a charge over firing 80 generals would have made him “feel a little differently.”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said the effort was doomed anyway. “It’s going to die in the Senate; it’s just that simple,” he said. Removal requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate.
Across the Capitol, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) questioned whether Hegseth is giving Trump an accurate picture of the war. “Is he being truthful in the way the war is going?” Ernst asked reporters, Yahoo News reported.
“We saw Iowans absolutely reject the war in Iran and the cost that it’s causing on American families and their pocketbooks,” she said.
Ernst, a retiring Armed Services Committee member who voted to confirm Hegseth in January 2025, stopped short of backing impeachment. “If there is deception coming from our Pentagon and being transmitted to the president, I would want to know that,” she said. “But I have some serious questions.”
Massie said Monday he would not bring another impeachment resolution, CBS News reported, but Democrats could revive the effort when they take control of both chambers in January.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), on track to become speaker, has said Democrats will “run Pete Hegseth out of town,” NBC News reported.
Only two Cabinet secretaries have ever been impeached: Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024. Neither was removed from office.
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