Pete Hegseth faces House impeachment vote amid controversy over Iran War

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on Monday escalated his effort to impeach Pete Hegseth, forcing a House vote later in the week to remove a Defense secretary who’s emerged as among the most controversial figures of President Trump’s second term.

The development marks the second time in two months that Massie has sought to oust the Pentagon chief. On the first occasion, House GOP leaders blocked the effort by sending lawmakers home a day early for the pre-midterm recess, effectively avoiding a vote that might have been difficult for some vulnerable incumbents.

But that tactic merely delayed the inevitable. And Massie wasted no time revisiting the issue in the lame duck, stepping to the House floor on Congress’s first day back to Washington to reintroduce his resolution.

“Secretary Hegseth knowingly executed and implemented unlawful orders to initiate war against a foreign nation, notwithstanding the absence of congressional authorization, an attack upon the United States giving rise to the national emergency contemplated by law, or an imminent threat requiring immediate defensive action, thereby substituting unlawful executive action for the constitutional and statutory judgment of Congress,” Massie said Monday on the House floor.

“In all of this, Secretary Hegseth has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as Secretary of Defense and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States of America,” the Kentucky Republican said.

It’s unclear if the measure has the support to pass while Republicans still control the lower chamber. Despite some GOP criticism of the Pentagon chief, Massie has been the lonely Republican calling for Hegseth to be removed from office.

But the midterm rout suffered by the Republicans could be a factor in the vote, as dozens of GOP incumbents who lost their reelection bids will be newly liberated to vote their consciences — and their legacies — without fear of political repercussions from Trump or the MAGA faithful who still support him.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a frequent Hegseth critic who was on the fence on impeachment before the elections, was sounding a different tune on Monday, suggesting he is ready to back Massie’s resolution.

Even Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), a Trump ally who chairs the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said voters have soured on Hegseth, particularly over his handling of the Iran War, and suggested that Republicans in the Capitol are doing the same.

“I can tell you with a high level of confidence that … there’s a lot of questions about Hegseth,” Comer told NewsNation on Friday . “We have no idea what the strategy is moving forward in Iran. No one’s happy about Iran, and I think the Republican voters are more upset about what’s going on in Iran than the Democrat voters.”

Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, did not rule out impeaching Hegseth and voiced dissatisfaction about the U.S. handling of the Iran war.

“I want to hear the debate on it to see if it merits impeachment,” Hill said during his Sunday appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Other Republicans, however, are lining up behind Hegseth, praising the Defense chief for what they see as bringing a warrior ethic back to the Pentagon.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisc.), a Hegseth ally who sits on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) called Massie “self-aggrandizing twit who never served in the military” and his impeachment effort “pathetic.”

Van Orden wrote Monday that Hegseth’s leadership of the Pentagon has led to the “highest morale in decades, the prosecution of some of the most extraordinary combat ops in the history of warfare and record recruiting .”

Hegseth previously boosted Van Orden in his reelection bid against Democrat Rebecca Cooke during a trip to Eau Claire, Wisc. Van Orden lost the race last week.

And the administration is standing behind the defense secretary with Secretary of State Marco Rubio praising him for doing a “great job.”

“I’ve worked with him every single day on many of these topics. I’ve seen the work he does and the professionalism he brings to it. He’s very smart. He works very hard,” Rubio, who also serves as Trump’s national security adviser, told reporters on Monday. “He puts a lot of hours into this, and on all the policy issues we’ve worked on together, I think he’s done a very good job.”

Democrats, meanwhile, are expected to support Hegseth’s ouster en masse, especially after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who had declined to endorse Massie’s resolution before the midterms, quickly changed course and threw his full weight behind the measure .

Massie’s eight impeachment articles accuse the Pentagon chief of abusing his powers in relation to several Pentagon operations, including Hegseth’s handling of the Iran War and the extrajudicial killings of alleged drug smugglers in international waters.

Jeffries’s full-throated support gives the resolution a big boost. Before the elections, Jeffries had kept his powder dry on the issue , perhaps out of caution not to add fuel to Trump’s warnings that Democrats, if given control of the House, would prioritize impeachments above everything else to settle old political scores.