House Republicans block Hegseth impeachment push over Iran war
The House voted to return an impeachment resolution to committee, but Democrats taking control of Congress in January could revive the effort.
By Hassan Ellis ·
The Republican-controlled US House on Tuesday blocked an effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over his leadership of the Pentagon and the war in Iran. Lawmakers voted 211 to 204 to send the resolution back to committee, stopping its advance in a largely party-line decision that several Democrats missed.
Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie introduced the resolution Monday with Democratic support. The defeat may prove temporary, with Democrats preparing to take control of both the House and Senate in January. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, expected to become speaker, and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer both endorsed impeachment.
The vote followed sweeping Republican losses in the midterm elections, which some party members attributed to the Iran war and higher gasoline prices. President Donald Trump strongly defended Hegseth before the vote, and most Republican lawmakers supported the secretary. Trump later celebrated the result on social media as an exoneration.
Massie’s resolution contained eight impeachment counts, primarily concerning Iran, while also addressing military actions in Yemen and Venezuela. One count cited reported cuts to staffing and resources at a Pentagon office responsible for reducing civilian harm. Those reductions preceded a US missile strike on an Iranian primary school that killed up to 168 people.
Massie also argued that the administration had continued the Iran conflict without congressional authorization beyond the legal deadline. In a Tuesday social media post, he said the war had lasted 256 days and cited a requirement to withdraw from hostilities within 60 days without authorization from Congress. Massie will leave Congress in January after losing his Republican primary to a candidate backed by Trump.
Other allegations concerned Hegseth’s effort to punish Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a retired Navy pilot, for appearing in a video urging troops to reject unlawful orders. The resolution also challenged strikes against suspected drug-smuggling boats in Latin America and the failure to rescue survivors. Massie argued that such conduct could encourage adversaries to treat US forces similarly.
At his first Pentagon news conference in six months, Hegseth rejected the allegations and characterized them as disagreements over policy that did not justify impeachment. He argued that the campaign undermined service members and their operations while giving encouragement to US adversaries. He offered few details about intermittent operations against Iran or the fatal boat strikes.
House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed the resolution as an effort to attract political attention. Some Republicans nevertheless expressed dissatisfaction with Hegseth’s performance. Nebraska Representative Don Bacon, who is retiring after this year, opposed impeachment but said lawmakers should hold hearings into what he considered the secretary’s failures.
Trump pointed to the January US raid to capture then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and operations against Iran as evidence of Hegseth’s success. He asserted that Iran’s navy and air force had been destroyed. Iran, however, has continued attacking US bases in the Middle East and disrupting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict, contributing to higher global oil prices.
