WASHINGTON — Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on Monday set in motion an eventual House vote this week on articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
House rules allow individual lawmakers to trigger snap impeachment votes. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has to schedule the impeachment vote within two legislative days.
The resolution contains eight articles of impeachment accusing Hegseth of high crimes and misdemeanors for illegally prosecuting the Iran war without approval from Congress and also for illegally attacking the free speech rights of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). Hegseth retaliated against Kelly, who participated in a video reminding troops not to obey illegal orders, by trying to demote the retired Navy captain in an attempt to cut his pension.
Massie called Hegseth’s attack on Kelly ironic.
“Hegseth went after Sen. Mark Kelly for saying that you don’t have to follow illegal orders, but in fact, that’s what six of these articles of impeachment are: Hegseth carrying out illegal orders that he knew were illegal,” Massie told HuffPost.
It is possible the House approves the resolution this week. Democrats will likely support it, while several Republicans have criticized Hegseth in the past. The Iran war has been a political disaster for the president’s party. The conflict caused a spike in gas prices that contributed majorly to Republican defeats in House and Senate elections last week.
If the House does impeach Hegseth, he would only be removed from office if 67 senators voted to convict him at a Senate impeachment trial, which is an unlikely prospect. Republicans control 53 Senate seats until Democrats take over next year.
Hegseth has sought to put on a brave face. He put out a video last week responding to the impeachment threat and scheduled a rare Pentagon press conference for Tuesday morning. But it’s possible he’s sweating a bit. On Monday, when asked about the impeachment vote, he subtly reminded reporters President Donald Trump was the one who decided to attack Iran.
“I couldn’t be more proud of what our president has done, the decisions that he’s made,” Hegseth said.
Massie said he didn’t know when Speaker Johnson might schedule the vote on his resolution, or whether the vote would be on the resolution itself, a motion to table the resolution or a motion to refer it to a committee. He said if the speaker employed some unexpected parliamentary maneuver to avoid the vote, Massie would simply restart the process and do it again.
Massie has been a thorn in the Trump administration’s side for the entirety of the president’s second term. He’s voted against priority legislation and orchestrated the congressional effort to force the release of the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex predator who was friends with the president. Trump punished Massie by endorsing his primary opponent and ending his career in Congress.
As for his decision to try to impeach Hegseth but not Trump, Massie said his articles assigned blame to both men, even though only Hegseth is targeted for impeachment.
“There are six of these eight articles where both the president and Hegseth are culpable,” he said.
Trump on Monday evening called Massie a “loser” and questioned why the House didn’t vote to impeach former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after he did not disclose his hospitalization in 2024 for prostate cancer surgery. Trump seemed unable to remember Austin’s name.
“What about impeaching the gentleman from Biden, his person that disappeared for two weeks and nobody had any idea where he was?” Trump said.