Outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) scolded his fellow party members on Tuesday after failing to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, calling out the GOP’s “suicide pact” with President Donald Trump.
“I’m not surprised because I didn’t have anybody commit to this, and I didn’t see anybody in the media committing to it,” Massie told MS Now’s Mychael Schnell. “I am disappointed, and I think it’s interesting that my colleagues are still in the suicide pact with this administration and the Iran war.”
Massie, who lost in his state’s Republican primary to a Trump-backed candidate, reintroduced articles of impeachment against Hegseth on Monday, but was blocked by his fellow House members in a 211-to-204 vote.
The congressman’s impeachment articles accused the defense secretary of violations such as conducting the Iran war without congressional authorization and illegally abducting Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
Massie was the only Republican who voted in favor, and 11 Democrats did not show up.
Hegseth, in a rare press conference Tuesday morning, defended the war and slammed Massie’s impeachment efforts, which he said were “driven by ego and personal resentment” and for “political spectacle.”
“Timed for one man’s final days in Congress to try to do damage to this president, this country and, most irresponsibly, the warriors who defend it. It’s a farce, and it’s a stunt, and everybody knows it,” Hegseth said Tuesday morning.
Massie told Schnell later that day that he was disappointed in his fellow Republicans, claiming that the consequences of the Iran war are “why they lost the election, but they can’t bring themselves to do anything about it.”
“I thought people would want to put some daylight between themselves and this administration and this war, but it looks like they don’t want to,” Massie said. “I think Trump still has control over this conference. Like that’s the big lesson I learned here.”