Pete Hegseth Impeachment – Will Angry Republicans Go for It?

Outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), true to his word – and perhaps at least partly because he wants to metaphorically slap President Donald Trump on his way out the door – has introduced eight articles of impeachment targeting Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The impeachment effort came in the form of a privileged resolution, meaning House leaders have two legislative days to act on one of three options.

The House could send the articles of impeachment to committee – a possible choice, simply because the lower chamber, much like the Senate, often chooses to kick contentious cans down the road, even if it buys just a few days or weeks.

There could be a vote to table it, which is also a possibility, given that the Democrats will control both chambers of Congress come Jan. 3 and will almost certainly revisit impeaching Pete Hegseth. It’s a way to kick that can even further, while getting Republicans – who still control the House – off the hook for impeaching Trump’s secretary of war.

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Another option is to hold a vote on the articles themselves. Given the GOP’s wafer-thin majority, as well as absences, a few Republicans are saying Pete Hegseth may indeed be impeached. Since the conflict with Iran, which is now looking like another “forever war,” was a big factor in the Democrats’ emphatic midterm victory, enough House Republicans might vote to impeach Pete Hegseth to shift the blame for the electoral massacre away from themselves and onto the administration.

Pete Hegseth Becomes a Blame-Game Victim

There is plenty of blame to go around on the Republican side for a midterm elections collapse of epic proportions. Neither President Donald Trump nor his administration can avoid a portion of that blame. That said, congressional Republicans have sorely disappointed the party’s voter base, which likely played a role in the GOP’s electoral defeat.

Massie himself has become largely irrelevant. Like John McCain, Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney, and a few others, he ultimately chose the “never Trump” hill to die on – at least politically. And that is why, like Cheney and Kinzinger, he will not be returning to Capitol Hill.

The eight articles of impeachment he introduced against Pete Hegseth do not seem to reflect any specific issue of libertarian anti-war principle. They punish the war secretary for military action against Iran, Yemen, drug cartels, and the extraction of Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela. Additionally, impeachment articles also target the retaliation against Sen. Mark Kelly for encouraging members of the armed forces to disobey “unlawful” orders.

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So, it seems Massie believes almost anything the Trump Department of War does is unlawful or unconstitutional by default and must be punished. That includes the apprehension of a brutal socialist dictator who has practically held an entire country hostage to his own lust for power and money.

For his part, Rep. Massie would perhaps argue that the ends do not justify the means – and there’s a deep and extremely complicated moral and philosophical debate behind that point of view.

A couple of Republicans have suggested Hegseth may be impeached because – they implied, rather than directly admitted – a few House GOPers are angry over the dragging out of the Iran conflict and have decided, presumably, that the secretary would make a good fall guy. Should that happen, the Senate could (much like the House) do one of three things. It could hold a vote to convict or acquit Hegseth, it could shelve a vote until the new Congress convenes in January, or it could dismiss the articles of impeachment outright, as the Democrat-controlled Senate did when Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was impeached in early 2024.

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Either way, Hegseth is unlikely to be convicted in the Senate, since that requires a two-thirds majority – and Democrats will not have that even when they take over. Several Republican senators have expressed reluctance or skepticism. The way things are looking, Democrats would need every member of their caucus plus at least 11 Republicans, even if they win both outstanding races, to remove Hegseth from office.

Given that the Republican-controlled Congress has failed to live up to expectations for two years, one could be forgiven for thinking the GOP caucus, with just two months left before they hand over to the Democrats, would have more pressing matters to address. Then again, considering the Senate couldn’t even muster the energy to vote on making Daylight Saving Time permanent, maybe not addressing any matters is their preferred option.