House GOP shelves Pete Hegseth impeachment articles

House Republicans on Tuesday shelved a measure spearheaded by outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) that would have led to a vote on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

In a dramatic and tight 211-204 vote, the House voted to refer the resolution to committee, a move that essentially ends efforts to impeach Hegseth over the Iran war and other issues until the next Congress, when Democrats will hold large majorities in the House and Senate.

No Democrats opposed advancing the measure in Tuesday’s procedural vote, while Massie was the only Republican to vote with Democrats. Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-Calif.), who left the GOP this year and was defeated in last week’s elections, voted with Republicans.

Massie, a vocal critic of the U.S. war against Iran, had introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth. He previously said that if a motion to kill the resolution referring it to committee failed and the House proceeded to the articles themselves, he would have requested a vote on each of the articles separately. 

Massie has emerged as a vocal critic of Hegseth and President Trump, who both backed a primary challenger against him earlier this year. Massie lost his primary to former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein; Hegseth traveled to Kentucky to support Gallrein, who was subsequently elected to Congress last week.

But the electoral defeat didn’t stop Massie from reintroducing the articles of impeachment against the Pentagon chief on the House floor Monday. Massie accused Hegseth of violating the Constitution and other laws during U.S. military operations in Yemen, Iran, the Caribbean, the Eastern Pacific and with the military operation that seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from his country at the beginning of the year. 

Three of the articles are related to the Iran war, which Massie has said has been conducted without authorization from Congress. He also said Hegseth had defied Congress’s vote to end the conflict in the Middle East. 

The fourth article asserts that Hegseth’s orders led to the dismantling of safeguards within the Pentagon “necessary to distinguish civilian objects from military objectives,” leading to the killing of civilians. Massie argued in the fifth article that the Defense secretary is the “executioner” who directed the ongoing deadly boat strikes on both sides of South America, where at least 244 alleged “narco-terrorists” have been killed. 

The Kentucky Republican also argued Hegseth’s actions against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) — including starting a disciplinary procedure that could result in a reduction in military rank over his message to U.S. service members that they can refuse illegal orders — equated to retaliation against protected speech.

“We’re not indicting him for being bad at his job. In fact, he was very effective at killing schoolchildren in Iran; he was very effective at extrajudicial killings,” Massie said during a Monday press conference. “There’s no argument in these impeachment articles that he’s ineffective.”

Hegseth strongly pushed back against Massie’s salvo Tuesday morning at the Pentagon during his first press conference in more than six months, lambasting the Kentucky Republican as “one disgruntled and defeated congressman” who is following “a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment.”