Massie says House GOP leaving to avoid Hegseth impeachment vote

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) accused House Republican leadership on Wednesday of sending lawmakers home early to avoid a vote on his resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The announcement, shared by the office of GOP Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), cuts the final legislative week before the midterm elections short by one day.

“And there it is. Just as I predicted,” Massie wrote in a social media post . “They’re canceling Congress tomorrow to avoid the vote on IMPEACHING @SecWar.”

The Kentucky Republican added that this decision will “make it harder” to reach the required votes needed to pass a bipartisan discharge petition on follow-up legislation to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was passed by the chamber last year.

Massie said the measure, which he co-sponsored with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.), had around 190 of the 218 signatures needed to pass on Tuesday evening.

On Tuesday, Massie introduced eight impeachment articles against Hegseth, accusing the secretary of conducting an illegal war against Iran and killing suspected drug smugglers without proper oversight, among other charges.

The GOP lawmaker told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday evening that he did not reveal his plans to introduce this resolution to Republican leadership out of concern that they would try to prevent this effort.

“I was afraid that they would do something to subvert me getting on the floor for an hour and 20 minutes and reading these articles,” he said.

Massie told Collins that he introduced the privileged resolution on Tuesday so that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) would be forced to introduce it within the 48-hour time period before the House broke for recess.

“He could call the vote tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, and that was another reason for the timing,” Massie said on Tuesday evening. “If I were to offer this tomorrow instead of today, they could have punted this until after the election.”

The House will return following the midterm elections on Nov. 9, following Johnson’s decision to cut short the last two weeks of the September session earlier this month.

“The House has done it’s work,” Johnson told reporters after the amended schedule was released on Wednesday, according to comments shared by CBS News .

“It’s time for our members to go home to their districts and make their case to the American people, to go and explain all of the great things we’ve done,” the GOP leader said.