FIGHTING TALK

Hegseth Faces Impeachment Vote Over Illegal War

Rep. Thomas Massie reintroduced his articles of impeachment against the defense secretary.

Rebel GOP Rep. Thomas Massie reintroduced his articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday, setting up what will be a brutal battle for the top Trump official to save his job.

The outgoing Republican congressman returned to Washington, D.C. on Monday, where he read his resolution on the House floor on the first day back for lawmakers who have been out of town for weeks leading up to the midterms.

Massie first filed his eight articles of impeachment against the defense secretary in mid-September.

Top officials can be removed from office if impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors and then convicted in the Senate.

The articles introduced by the Kentucky Republican relate to the Iran war, the operation in Venezuela, and other military action by the Trump administration.

They include waging a war in violation of the War Powers Resolution, ignoring laws to minimize civilian casualties, carrying out extrajudicial killings, suppressing free speech, kidnapping a sovereign leader, and the unlawful war in Yemen.

Massie had been threatening to reintroduce the articles against Hegseth and force a vote in the House unless the president fired the defense secretary or he resigned.

However, after Republicans suffered devastating losses in the midterms, Hegseth vowed to fight the effort to remove him and said he was not going anywhere.

The vote is expected this week, and there could be bipartisan support in the House for Hegseth’s removal.

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Fellow retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon said he was still weighing whether he would vote to impeach Hegseth. He said the areas that concern him the most about the defense secretary are not in the articles of impeachment. His biggest concern is the firing of dozens of top military officials and the withholding of money appropriated by Congress.

He said some Republicans were not comfortable with Massie’s justifications for impeachment, but that others were.

A wave of Democrats have sounded off on the need for Hegseth to go. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Monday that he is a “hard yes” on impeaching the defense secretary.

President Donald Trump has defended his defense secretary and argued he has done a good job in the role amid mounting bipartisan pressure for him to fire Hegseth.

The Daily Beast asked the White House and Pentagon for comment on Massie reintroducing articles of impeachment on Monday.

Hegseth released a video after the midterms in which he defended his tenure at the Defense Department, attacked Democrats and vowed impeachment had not worked against the president and would not work against him.

Asked directly about the efforts to remove him from office on Monday, Hegseth fired back.

“There’s a lot of politically motivated people who may have substantial policy disagreements, but their disagreements are with success,” Hegseth whined.

He argued that operations carried out under his leadership, including against Iran and Venezuela, will “change the face of the globe for a generation.”

“We’re very proud of the president’s America First agenda,” Hegseth said.

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Sarah Ewall-WicePolitical Reporter

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