US House blocks bid to impeach Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, for now

An effort to impeach US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing him of waging war on Iran without congressional authorisation, has failed on Capitol Hill.

A majority of the House of Representatives voted to refer impeachment articles to a committee – essentially killing the effort introduced by dissident Republican congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, for now.

In his first news briefing from the Pentagon in six months, Hegseth called the impeachment effort a “farce” and “sabotage”.

The bid to find the cabinet secretary guilty of misconduct and ultimately remove him from office was seen as a long shot as it could have required a number of other Republicans to defy President Donald Trump.

However, that calculation could change in January when the Democratic Party assumes control of both chambers of Congress, following its successes in the US midterm elections. For now, Trump’s Republican Party remains in control.

After Tuesday’s vote, the most senior Democrat in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, said: “This is not the end of it. It’s just the beginning.”

The question on which lawmakers were voting on Tuesday was whether or not to refer the resolution to the House Judiciary Committee, which is led by Republicans. The alternative would have been to allow the resolution to proceed in the House itself.

All Republicans other than Massie voted to refer the resolution to the committee, meaning that the congressman’s effort failed in a 211-204 vote.

The move to send the measure to the panel effectively kills the effort, as there is only a short period of time left in this Congress.

More than a dozen members, including 11 Democrats, missed the ballot. Multiple Democrats blamed traffic issues for their absences.

Trump celebrated Tuesday’s outcome in a post on Truth Social, saying the effort “has miserably FAILED”.

“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,” Trump said, referring to Hegseth.

After the vote, Massie said he “wasn’t surprised” but “was disappointed”, according to BBC’s US media partner CBS.

“My diagnosis of Congress is these people know what to do,” he added. “They just can’t bring themselves to do it, even when it would benefit them politically.”

Massie had previously acknowledged his impeachment bid may not succeed immediately, but argued it could help push Trump to replace Hegseth before Democrats can launch their own impeachment process.

The Kentucky congressman also said that removing Hegseth now would give the Senate time to approve a replacement while Republicans were still in power.

Impeachment resolutions can be carried past the end of a congressional term, meaning Democrats would be able to take it up next year.

The Democrats will take control of both chambers of Congress in January following a successful midterm election that allowed them control of both chambers.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, had predicted earlier in the day that the impeachment bid would fail.

In the eight articles of impeachment formally introduced in the House on Monday, Massie said Hegseth was “breaking the law and must be held accountable” for fighting a war in Iran for more than 90 days without lawmakers’ approval.

The impeachment articles also accused Hegseth of overseeing “extrajudicial killings” in the US campaign against boats alleged to be carrying drugs in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Hegseth called efforts to impeach him a political stunt by a Trump administration opponent who was “disgruntled and defeated”.

Hegseth also argued Massie’s resolution endangered national security, because it communicated to US adversaries “that the United States will actually punish its own warriors and its own civilian leadership for successfully executing lawful military operations”.

“This is not patriotism. This is sabotage,” he said.

He echoed some statements Trump had made during a surprise appearance at the White House briefing room on Monday, including touting a rise in military recruitment levels.

But Hegseth said Massie was motivated by policy differences and “not high crimes, not misdemeanours, not treason, not bribery, not the kinds of offences the founders intended when they wrote the impeachment clause”.

Massie, who lost re-election earlier this year to a Trump-backed opponent, has been critical of Trump and the war in Iran since it began in February.

He had already incurred the president’s ire for demanding the Trump administration release files on deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

While Hegseth has survived politically for now, many lawmakers – including some Republicans – have questioned how long he can last in the administration.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, said on Tuesday he expected Hegseth to resign or be fired by Trump.

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