House Votes 211-204 to Send Hegseth Impeachment Resolution to Committee, Ending the Effort for This Congress

The House voted 211 to 204 on Tuesday night to send eight articles of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee, a move that ended the effort to bring formal charges against him in this Congress.

The vote came a day after Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, filed the articles as a privileged resolution, which forced House leaders to act within two legislative days. A direct vote on the articles had been planned for Wednesday. Instead, the House chose referral, and the Judiciary Committee, controlled by allies of President Donald Trump, is expected to take no action on the charges before the current Congress ends on January 3. The articles would then expire, and Democrats would need to file a new version to revive the effort in the next Congress.

Massie was the only Republican to vote against the referral. The House has 219 Republicans, 214 Democrats, one independent and two empty seats, according to the House Clerk. Had the articles come to a direct vote, impeachment would have needed 218 votes if all 434 members voted.

The eight articles accuse Hegseth of waging war in Iran without approval from Congress, in violation of the War Powers Resolution of 1973; of strikes on boats suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean; of failing to protect civilians, including deaths at a school in Minab, Iran; of retaliating against Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona; of the operation to seize Venezuela’s president; and of military action in Yemen without approval from Congress.

Hegseth calls the effort a farce

Hegseth defended himself at a Pentagon press conference on Tuesday morning, his first in six months. He called the impeachment effort a farce and said it was “a political spectacle” driven by ego. He said “everything has been lawful from day one” in the Iran, Yemen and Caribbean operations and warned that the effort “puts a target on the backs of American warriors by signalling that Congress will undermine their missions in real time.”

Trump posted on Truth Social after the vote that the Democrats’ attempt to impeach Hegseth had “miserably FAILED” and that every Republican except Massie had voted in favor of Hegseth. Earlier in the day, Trump had praised Hegseth’s press conference, writing that Hegseth “gets an ‘A’ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense.”

What comes next

Massie said on Monday that if the effort failed now, Democrats would hold hearings in January with people who served under Hegseth. “They are not going to be as polite as I am,” he told CNN. “They’ll be sworn in. They’ll have to testify against Pete Hegseth.” He predicted Hegseth would not remain in the job through the end of the year.

Only two cabinet secretaries have ever been impeached: William Belknap, the secretary of war in 1876, and Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary in 2024. Neither was convicted by the Senate.

Reporting based on coverage by The Times and SNJ Today.