House Votes To Send Thomas Massie’s Hegseth Impeachment Resolution to Judiciary Committee

House shelves Hegseth bid

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to refer GOP Rep. Thomas Massie's resolution to impeach Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to the House Judiciary Committee by a 211-204 vote, effectively killing the measure for the remainder of the Republican-controlled 119th Congress.

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Massie introduced the articles of impeachment against Hegseth on the House floor Monday afternoon, and Hegseth told reporters that the effort was a "political spectacle," framing Massie's resolution as an indictment against the troops.

Hegseth also said the eight articles of impeachment were directed at U.S. military service members and he argued that no Defense secretary has ever been impeached "for carrying out lawful military operations, and in our case, successful ones at that."

Trump celebrated the House action in a post on his social media platform, writing that Democrats "FAILED" to impeach Hegseth, while Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell declared "TOTAL VICTORY" in a post on X.

The House vote blocked the impeachment bid "for now," with Massie the only Republican to vote against moving the resolution to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

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Hegseth and Massie trade

Hegseth dismissed the impeachment effort as a "farce" and "sabotage" in his first news briefing from the Pentagon in six months, and he also called the push a political stunt aimed at damaging President Donald Trump. Massie said he "wasn't surprised" but "was disappointed," and he told BBC's US media partner CBS that "My diagnosis of Congress is these people know what to do," adding they "just can't bring themselves to do it." Hegseth argued that Massie's resolution endangered national security by communicating to U.S. adversaries that the United States would punish its own warriors and civilian leadership for executing lawful military operations, and he said Massie was motivated by policy differences rather than "high crimes, not misdemeanours, not treason, not bribery."

Trump posted on Truth Social that the effort "has miserably FAILED," while the Guardian reported that Sean Parnell wrote that the referral of the impeachment articles marked "total victory" for Secretary Hegseth and the American warfighter. Hakeem Jeffries backed the push to impeach Hegseth, accusing him of having "undermined America’s national security," and Abdul El-Sayed told the 11 Democratic representatives who did not show up that they should "show up and do your job."

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What happens next

The House action left Democrats with a path to revisit impeachment after they take control of both chambers of Congress in January, and the BBC said the move effectively kills the effort because there is only a short period of time left in this Congress. Democrats could still move to impeach him next year when they assume power, while the vote spared Republicans a decision on whether to impeach Hegseth on eight separate charges. Massie argued that removing Hegseth now would give the Senate time to approve a replacement while Republicans were still in power, and impeachment resolutions can be carried past the end of a congressional term.

Vice President JD Vance defended Hegseth in a social media post, writing that the impeachment effort was nothing more than political theater by Congress, which has "many tools for registering its policy disagreements." The Washington Post described the outcome as temporarily easing political pressure facing President Donald Trump and his polarizing Pentagon chief, while the ABC News account said the vote was procedural to refer the measure to the House Judiciary Committee, not on impeachment itself.

Reporting for this sectionBBCThe New York Times