House Republican rebel Thomas Massie has introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Massie has filed his resolution as privileged, meaning that he will force a vote on the House floor within two days.
Even if he does not garner enough support within his party to impeach Hegseth, Republicans will be forced to go on the record about their support for Hegseth amid the Iran war just weeks ahead of the midterm elections, as Republicans face a difficult midterm election.
Massie, who lost his Republican primary after President Donald Trump endorsed his opponent, has been a thorn in the president’s side throughout his second term. He has frequently broken ranks—notably in his push to release the Epstein files—and has not gone along with the GOP agenda.
He did not inform House Republican leadership about his plans to introduce the articles of impeachment, effectively catching them off guard. The House must act by Thursday, as the lower chamber is scheduled to leave Washington at the end of the week for an extended recess until the November election.
The Kentucky congressman argued that Hegseth has violated “his oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States” and violated “his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, especially with regard to the commission of war.”
“In all of this, Secretary Hegseth has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as Secretary of Defense,” Massie said on the House floor.
His resolution also targets Hegseth over the military’s actions in Venezuela at the start of the year, as Massie accused him of overseeing an illegal operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro without prior congressional authorization.
Hegseth is already facing a separate impeachment push from House Democrats.
On Massie’s push, the DOD released a statement calling Hegseth “a transformative leader” and asserting that “The entire Department is unified behind the Secretary’s vision and will continue working to put our warfighters and America first.”
The vote comes as more concerning reports have emerged about the Trump administration’s disastrous war in Iran.
The cost of the war keeps increasing as the U.S. continues to deplete its stockpiles as the deeply unpopular war drags on for nearly seven months with no end in sight.
Trump meanwhile has been providing statements about when the conflict he started in the Middle East might end, even at times suggesting the U.S. has already won the battle.
