It was, by any measure, a long shot. A single Republican congressman, armed with eight articles of impeachment, trying to remove a sitting defence secretary over a war the President had already claimed as a victory.
<img class=”aligncenter wp-image-35134 size-full” src=”https://maygist.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Pete-Hegseth.jpg” alt=”The Impeachment That Wasn’t: Inside the Failed Bid to Remove Pete Hegseth
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On Tuesday, the long shot died — for now.
The House of Representatives voted 211-204 to refer the impeachment articles against Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Republican-led Judiciary Committee, effectively burying the effort led by Kentucky’s Thomas Massie.
Massie was the only Republican to oppose the move. More than a dozen members, including 11 Democrats, missed the vote entirely.
The Case Massie Made
The articles, formally introduced on Monday, accused Hegseth of “breaking the law and must be held accountable” for conducting a war in Iran for more than 90 days without congressional approval.
They also alleged he oversaw “extrajudicial killings” in the US campaign against boats said to be carrying drugs in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
The effort was always unlikely to succeed. Convicting a cabinet secretary would have required other Republicans to defy President Donald Trump — a prospect that never materialised.
Hegseth’s Response
Speaking at his first Pentagon news briefing in six months, Hegseth dismissed the effort as a “farce” and “sabotage”.
He framed Massie’s resolution as a threat to national security, arguing it told US adversaries “that the United States will actually punish its own warriors and its own civilian leadership for successfully executing lawful military operations”.
“This is not patriotism. This is sabotage,” he said.
He said Massie was driven by policy differences and “not high crimes, not misdemeanours, not treason, not bribery, not the kinds of offences the founders intended when they wrote the impeachment clause”.
At a news conference, he described the effort as a political stunt by a “disgruntled and defeated” opponent of the administration.
Trump’s Victory Lap
The President celebrated on Truth Social, saying the effort “has miserably FAILED”.
He wrote: “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.”
Massie’s Diagnosis
After the vote, Massie said he “wasn’t surprised” but “was disappointed”, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US media partner.
“My diagnosis of Congress is these people know what to do,” he said. “They just can’t bring themselves to do it, even when it would benefit them politically.”
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He had acknowledged the bid might not succeed immediately, but argued it could pressure Trump to replace Hegseth before Democrats launch their own impeachment process. Removing Hegseth now, he said, would give the Senate time to confirm a replacement while Republicans still held power.
Impeachment resolutions can carry past the end of a congressional term, meaning Democrats could revive the effort when they take control of both chambers in January.
The Question That Remains
House Speaker Mike Johnson had predicted the bid would fail. It did.
But the vote has not settled the deeper question: how long Hegseth can last. Even some Republicans have questioned his durability. Texas Senator Ted Cruz said on Tuesday he expected Hegseth to resign or be fired by Trump.
For now, the secretary has survived. Whether he thrives is another matter.