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.”

The Defense secretary told reporters Massie is attempting to “do damage to this president, this country, and most irresponsibly, the warriors who defend it” in his final days on Capitol Hill.

“It’s a farce, and it’s a stunt, and everybody knows it. In the 250 years of our American republic, no secretary of War or secretary of Defense has ever been impeached for carrying out lawful military operations, and in our case, successful ones at that,” Hegseth said during the press briefing, referring to the administration’s preferred name for the Defense Department.

Trump, Vice President Vance and other top administration officials stood behind Hegseth, panning the impeachment effort as “absurd” and praising Hegseth for his leadership at the Pentagon. Trump gave Hegseth an A-plus grade after his Tuesday morning press conference.

Several House Republicans put out statements in the lead-up to the vote offering support for the Defense secretary, noting he restored military readiness, executed Trump’s national security priorities and oversaw “critical reforms” at the Pentagon.

“The effort to impeach him is nothing more than petty, personal and partisan politics,” Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), the chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, said ahead of the vote. “Congress should focus on real threats to America and supporting our men and women in uniform by passing our appropriations bills instead of wasting time on impeachment proceedings.”

At the same time, Hegseth press aides took to the social platform X on Tuesday to push back on House Democrats ’ criticism of the Pentagon chief, highlighting the jump in recruitment numbers across all service branches, the lethal U.S. military strikes against alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, taking out ISIS global leader Abu-Bilal al-Minuki and other ISIS fighters in Africa and increasing pay for troops in hostile fire and imminent danger.

“We destroyed terror regimes’ capabilities, we sank the boats carrying poison into our communities, we put a narco-dictator in handcuffs,” Hegseth said Tuesday morning. “These are not high crimes. This is the job, and it’s a job well done.”

Heading into the vote, top Democratic leaders, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), had announced their support for Massie’s resolution. But they did not pressure rank-and-file members to do the same, saying it was a vote of conscience for each lawmaker.

“We didn’t put our fingers on the scale,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), the outgoing chair of the House Democratic Caucus.

Aguilar, who’s in line to become the majority whip in the next Congress, also played down the idea that Democrats would race to try to impeach Hegseth again in the next Congress when they control the gavels.

“When we are in the majority, we are serious about holding people accountable, and that will … start early with oversight,” Aguilar said. “But that is not anything that is being discussed at this point.”