Republicans in the US House of Representatives blocked an effort on Tuesday to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The result gives him a reprieve before Democrats take control of Congress in January and possibly try again.
The House voted 211 to 204 to send eight articles of impeachment to the Republican-led Judiciary Committee. Representative Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who sponsored the effort, warned that this would kill it. Massie is leaving Congress. He hoped to win over Republicans unhappy with Hegseth's policies and with the unpopular eight-month-old Iran war but no other Republican joined him.
The articles accuse Hegseth of "high crimes and misdemeanors." They say he illegally ordered the military to wage war in Iran and Yemen, attack boats in the Caribbean Sea and capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January. Congress, the only body allowed to declare war, never approved the Iran conflict which is led by the US and Israel.
Eleven Democrats did not vote including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. If eight of them had voted, the procedural measure would have failed and a full impeachment vote could have followed. Pelosi's spokesperson said she was in San Francisco for an annual event honouring veterans and would have voted against the measure.
The vote came hours after Hegseth called the impeachment effort a farce and defended his record at his first Pentagon briefing in six months. "History will judge the Iran war quite differently than the conventional wisdom right now," he said. He says his orders were lawful. President Donald Trump praised the result, saying the effort "has miserably FAILED!" Vice President JD Vance also backed Hegseth, though he has questioned the war and blamed it for Republican losses in last week's midterm elections.
Anger over the war, now an effective stalemate focused on securing the Strait of Hormuz, helped Democrats win Congress. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found most Americans want the new Congress to act to end it.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries called Hegseth "the architect of the reckless and costly failed war of choice in Iran." He said Democrats will discuss a new impeachment effort "at the appropriate time." A Democratic-led push could call senior officers fired by Hegseth to testify. It could also cover Ukraine policy and strikes on suspected drug boats.
Some Republicans say Hegseth's strained ties with Congress are a political risk as the administration seeks to raise the military budget to $1.5 trillion from $950 billion. Massie compared his party to passengers who "know it's a sinking ship but committed to stay on board."
