An effort to impeach President Donald Trump’s Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, failed to move forward in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
The motion was defeated 211-204 after outgoing Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie was unable to win support from any Republican colleagues.
Lawmakers were technically voting on whether to send the impeachment resolution to a committee, meaning the House never considered the allegations themselves in a full floor vote.
In the resolution, Massie, a vocal opponent of the Iran war, accused Hegseth of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” He also alleged that the secretary was responsible for kidnapping a foreign leader and disregarding laws intended to reduce civilian casualties.
Before the vote, Louisiana Republican Clay Higgins told Our News Outlet that the effort was “1000% politically motivated.” Higgins said Massie was not acting for constitutional reasons, adding, “It’s not an impeachable offense to perform perfect military operations precisely according to the orders of the Commander in Chief.”
Tennessee Republican Tim Burchett likewise said Hegseth had committed “no crimes.” He added that lawmakers had raised no objections when briefed about strikes against Venezuelan drug boats.
Speaking at a rare Pentagon briefing Tuesday morning, Hegseth said he was not intimidated by the impeachment effort unfolding on Capitol Hill.
“What one disgruntled and defeated congressman is attempting is not oversight, and it’s not accountability,” Hegseth said at the outset of his remarks. “It’s a political spectacle.”
“That’s what it is: policy disagreements, not high crimes, not misdemeanors, not treason, not bribery, not the kinds of offenses the founders intended when they wrote the impeachment clause.”
President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth faces an impeachment vote in the House of Representatives this week
Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie has introduced a resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in connection with the US conflict with Iran
Massie went to the House floor Monday afternoon to read a 34-page resolution outlining the case for impeaching Hegseth.
The Kentucky Republican, who has frequently clashed with Trump, also criticized Hegseth for sharply restricting media access at the Pentagon.
No Democrat had publicly ruled out supporting Massie’s impeachment resolution.
With 214 Democrats in the House, only three Republicans would have been needed to join them. Massie was already committed to the effort, leaving at least two additional Republicans required for passage.
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Hegseth has dismissed Massie as a “disgruntled, defeated congressman” and accused him of filing “sham articles of impeachment.”
Still, there were indications that Hegseth’s Republican support might extend beyond Massie.
Kentucky Republican James Comer, a close Trump ally and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said the votes for impeachment could exist in the House this week, although he stopped short of saying how he would vote.
“We really didn’t know how to message what the exit strategy was, because I don’t think anybody in Congress knows what the exit strategy is,” Comer told Newsmax before discussing the possibility of an impeachment vote.
Arkansas Republican French Hill, who represents a deeply conservative district but won his race last week by just 4,405 votes, told CBS News that he wanted to “hear the debate” over impeaching Hegseth.
“I want to hear the debate on it to see if it merits impeachment versus some other disciplinary action or action by the president if he’s not getting the job done in leading the Department of War. That’s the issue,” Hill told CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday.
“If he’s not conducting his mission in the right way, then the president ought to make a change there.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is widely expected to become the next Speaker, said he fully supports Massie’s resolution.
“I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution,” Jeffries told ABC This Week anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday.
“The so-called Secretary of Defense has abused his power, undermined our national security and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, which has skyrocketed prices on the American people and made the country less safe,” Jeffries said. “Pete Hegseth has got to go.”
Massie has accused Hegseth of committing “high crimes and misdemeanors” by continuing military operations in Iran even though Congress has never formally declared war in the region.
By introducing a privileged resolution, Massie triggered a vote through a procedural mechanism that allows legislation to bypass the usual committee process.
He used the same tactic last year to force a vote on releasing the Epstein Files, resisting pressure from Republican leaders who wanted to end his transparency campaign. Massie has said he will abandon the impeachment effort only if Hegseth resigns.
An impeachment resolution requires a simple majority to pass the House, while conviction in a Senate trial requires a two-thirds majority.
Trump has continued to support his Pentagon chief. In a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday, the president told CBS News he remains confident in Hegseth.
