House Gop Sinks Hegseth Impeachment

The House on Tuesday defeated a Republican-led attempt to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, sparing him from a potentially damaging trial and handing President Donald Trump a major win.

The 211-204 procedural vote killed the effort by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and ensured it would not move any further this Congress. Massie — who was the only Republican voting to keep the effort alive — had accused the Pentagon chief of eight charges that he alleged amounted to high crimes and misdemeanors.

“Republicans admit why they lost the election, but they're paralyzed and can't do anything to correct for it,” Massie said after the vote. “And I think that's kind of a theme up here is that people know what the right thing is. They just can't bring themselves to it because there's some other political reality.”

The vote is a victory for Hegseth and the White House, which rallied behind the Pentagon chief as Massie and Democrats joined forces to remove him. During a rare Pentagon press conference Tuesday morning, Hegseth said the effort to oust him amounted to an attack on American troops and Trump.

Trump, in a Truth Social post following the vote, celebrated Democrats’ inability to advance the effort.

“The Democrats’ attempt to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has miserably FAILED! Every single Republican, except Thomas Massie, a major LOSER, voted in favor of Pete,” Trump posted. “Again, Victories in Venezuela and Iran, the Best Recruitment Numbers in the History of the Military (Long waiting lists to get in!), and Spirit like rarely seen before, led to the EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot.”

Speaker Mike Johnson kept the GOP ranks united, despite a midterm drubbing due in part to the unpopular Iran war that Hegseth oversaw. Johnson ripped the move as a political ploy.

"Thomas Massie is a disgruntled congressman, and the impeachment effort is a political gambit for attention,” Johnson told reporters ahead of the vote.

Backers of the impeachment fell short in part because 11 Democrats missed the vote. Just eight Republicans skipped it.

Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-Va.) said that some Democrats "were at an event that didn't make it back in time, so it's unfortunate. Really, should have never happened, but that's the way it played out."

The question of impeaching Hegseth now falls to a Democratic-led Congress next year, when they will control both the House and Senate. Democrats have said they plan to put Hegseth and his Pentagon subordinates under the microscope.

Democrats want to probe the costs and fallout of the Iran war, deadly strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats at sea and Hegseth’s unexplained firings of senior military officers, among other issues.

“Republicans may have buried this vote today, but in January a new Congress answers to the American people,” Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.) said on the House floor. “And Pete Hegseth will answer to it as well.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — the leading contender to take the speaker’s gavel next year — endorsed impeaching Hegseth. Following the failed vote, Jeffries told reporters he would consult with incoming leaders of the Armed Services and Judiciary committees about a renewed effort “at the appropriate time.”

“This is not the end of it,” Jeffries said. “It’s just the beginning.”

Massie's effort, even if successful, still faced uncertainty. A GOP-led Senate could have dismissed the charges without even holding a trial. Or Johnson could have opted not to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate, effectively punting the issue to the next Congress.

Even with the midterm losses, nearly all House Republicans backed the embattled Pentagon chief, even those who lost seats due to the unpopularity of the Iran war.

Some conflicted Republicans ultimately opted against impeaching Hegseth despite dissatisfaction with the Pentagon chief. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a retiring Armed Services Committee member who has clashed with the Trump administration, said he disagreed with Massie’s reasons for attempting to impeach Hegseth.

"I personally am not a fan of the secretary; I don't think he was the right guy in the job,” Bacon said. “When you read Massie's impeachment, I don't agree with it."

Hegseth has dug in as the impeachment threat grew. The Defense secretary, in his first Pentagon press briefing in months Tuesday, asserted that the effort represents an attack on American troops and Trump.

"Their service was not a crime," Hegseth said of U.S. military personnel. "These are heroes, and no politician in Washington will tell them otherwise."

Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.