House Could Vote Tuesday Evening on Impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth

The House could decide as early as 5:30 p.m. Tuesday whether to move ahead with impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, after Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, used a House rule that compels a prompt vote. Hours before the votes were scheduled to begin, Hegseth stepped to a Pentagon lectern and waved off the effort as “a farce” and “a stunt.”

The outcome is far from settled. Because Massie filed his eight articles as a privileged resolution, the House must act on them within two legislative days, but the first vote is expected to be on a procedural motion that would kill the measure by tabling it or sending it to committee. Republicans hold a 218-214 edge in a lame-duck House that Democrats will control in January, so attendance and a small number of Republican defections could decide the result.

Eight charges, most tied to the Iran war

Massie read the 34-page resolution aloud on the House floor Monday. Three of its articles involve the war with Iran and the 1973 War Powers Resolution: they allege that Hegseth waged the war without a declaration of war or congressional authorization, kept it going after both chambers approved a concurrent resolution in June directing the removal of U.S. forces, and blew past the law’s deadlines for ending unauthorized hostilities.

The other five accuse him of disregarding laws meant to limit civilian casualties; of lethal strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats that Massie says killed at least 243 people; of retaliating against Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., for constitutionally protected speech; of directing the January operation that seized former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores; and of ordering strikes in Yemen without congressional approval.

“By engaging in hostilities in Iran for more than 90 days without congressional authorization, Secretary Hegseth is breaking the law and must be held accountable,” Massie said in announcing the move. He also urged President Donald Trump to replace Hegseth now, while a successor can still be confirmed, and warned that Democrats will bring hearings and trials once they take control of Congress next year.

Hegseth: every mission was lawful

At a news conference that lasted about 25 minutes Tuesday morning, Hegseth said each operation named in the articles, from Iran and Yemen to Venezuela and the boat strikes, was lawful, ordered by the president and reported to Congress. He argued that the resolution endangers the service members who carried out those orders, though the articles name only Hegseth, and he cast Massie, who lost his Republican primary this year to a Trump-backed challenger, as a lone, disgruntled critic.

Vice President JD Vance, posting on X, called the question of whether Hegseth had committed impeachable offenses absurd. On the other side, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has said he is a “hard yes,” and Democrats are expected to vote almost as a bloc. NBC News reported Tuesday morning that it had not heard from any Republican besides Massie who was committed to impeachment; Massie has said he expects several to join him.

How the vote works and what could follow

If a majority backs the motion to table or refer, the resolution dies without a vote on the charges. If that motion fails, the House moves to debate and vote on the articles themselves, and a simple majority would impeach. Turnout is a wild card: 36 members missed votes Monday night, NBC reported, and the members who lost re-election bids on Nov. 3 are disproportionately Republican.

An impeachment would make Hegseth only the third Cabinet secretary ever impeached, after Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024. The case would then go to the Senate, where conviction requires a two-thirds vote. Massie has argued the charges would carry into the new Congress, when Democrats will hold the Senate, and that a trial might not start until 2027. An impeached official remains in office unless the Senate convicts.

Closer to home, the vote concerns the civilian chief of the department that runs Marine Corps Base Quantico, Naval Support Facility Dahlgren in King George and Fort A.P. Hill in Caroline. The American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing about 820,000 federal and D.C. government workers, sent House members a letter Monday urging a yes vote, citing risks the war has posed to the department’s uniformed and civilian personnel and Hegseth’s removal of workplace protections for its civilian workforce.

Sources

• Office of Rep. Thomas Massie: Press release on forcing an impeachment vote

• Office of Rep. Thomas Massie: Text of the impeachment resolution (PDF)

• NBC News: Live updates on Hegseth and the House impeachment effort, Nov. 10

• The Guardian: Hegseth calls the impeachment bid a stunt

• Roll Call: Massie moves to force Hegseth impeachment vote

• Stars and Stripes: Massie moves to force impeachment vote against Hegseth

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