Impeachment of Defense Secretary Hegseth Back on the House Agenda as Soon as Next Week
Representative Thomas Massie says he will reintroduce articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth when the chamber returns, reviving an effort that stalled before the midterms.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing a renewed impeachment effort in the US House of Representatives, with Representative Thomas Massie saying he will bring articles of impeachment back to the floor as soon as next week.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, the Kentucky Republican said he will “definitely” reintroduce the measure when the chamber returns to Washington, reviving a push that gained new energy after the midterm elections flipped control of Congress.
A stalled first attempt
Massie first moved to impeach Hegseth in September, reading a sweeping 34-page resolution with eight articles from the House floor. The measure, introduced as a privileged resolution that leadership could not block, accused the defense secretary of waging the Iran war without congressional approval and of defying war powers resolutions that the House approved in June and July.
That attempt never came to a vote. Rather than take it up, the Republican-led House adjourned early for a seven-week break before the election, leaving the articles in limbo.
New political math
The landscape has since shifted. The Iran war that Hegseth championed contributed to Republicans losing control of Congress in the midterms, and the incoming Democratic majority takes office in January with no reason to protect a Trump cabinet official. Massie, however, is not waiting: he intends to force the question during the lame-duck session, when Republicans still hold the gavel.
The Kentuckian is among the most persistent Republican critics of President Donald Trump. He lost his May primary to a Trump-backed challenger in what became the most expensive House primary in American history, and he is not seeking reelection, giving him little to lose in confronting his own party's leadership over the Pentagon chief.
Hegseth under pressure
The renewed effort lands amid widespread speculation in Washington that Hegseth's position is precarious. The defense secretary has drawn sustained criticism over the Iran campaign, including from lawmakers in both parties who argue the administration has kept hostilities running far past the limits Congress set.
Impeachment in the House would not remove Hegseth; a Senate conviction would still be required, and that threshold remains distant. But even a failed vote would mark a historic rebuke of a sitting defense secretary and would test how much political capital the outgoing Republican majority is willing to spend to defend him.
