Hegseth Survives Impeachment Attempt After Republicans Vote To Kill Massie’s Articles

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will not be impeached this week after House Republicans voted to kill a series of articles of impeachment brought by Congressman Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who lost his primary to a GOP challenger earlier this year. Mr. Hegseth was accused of launching illegal strikes against Iran and alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, as well as abuse of power for directing an investigation into a sitting U.S. senator. Mr. Massie introduced his articles of impeachment before the House left town for the final stretch of the midterm campaign in September. He reintroduced them on Monday with the goal of bringing them up for a vote this week, though his Republican colleagues quickly killed the effort on Tuesday. By a vote of 211 to 204, the House voted to send the articles of impeachment to the Judiciary Committee, where Republicans can simply ignore them. Mr. Massie was the lone Republican to vote with Democrats to keep the articles on the floor so the matter could come up for a vote in the chamber. Two Republicans who seemed open to voting with Mr. Massie on the impeachment issue — Congressman Don Bacon, a retiring moderate and critic of Mr. Hegseth, and Congressman Warren Davidson, a libertarian-aligned conservative who has spoken out against the Iran war — both voted to kill the impeachment articles. Mr. Bacon told the New York Sun on Tuesday morning that he was likely to vote no, citing both his distaste for Mr. Massie and his belief that the eight articles that had been introduced did not address his problems with Mr. Hegseth. He said that, had the articles of impeachment included charges related to the firing of flag officers or the impoundment of aid for Ukraine, he may have voted yes on those independent issues. “I don’t really align with the impeachment itself. If you’re talking about firing 80 generals and not spending appropriated money, I’d feel a little differently about it,” Mr. Bacon said after telling reporters on Monday that he was open to impeaching Mr. Hegseth. He especially took issue with Mr. Massie’s longstanding position against American aid for Israel and Mr. Massie’s condemnation of the war with Iran. “I want us to win in Iran,” Mr. Bacon told the Sun. “I have separate complaints about the secretary that [aren’t] in the impeachment [articles].”Mr. Davidson — who voted for a war powers act resolution earlier this year meant to wind down the war with Iran — said in a lengthy X post that, while he disagreed with how the war started, he did not believe it was appropriate to punish Mr. Hegseth for executing the president’s directives. “Don’t Scapegoat Pete Hegseth,” Mr. Davidson wrote Tuesday. “Washington has a familiar ritual after a bad election: find someone to blame whose name wasn’t on the ballot. This month that name is Pete Hegseth,” Mr. Davidson continued. “Secretary Hegseth has been highly effective and President Trump should keep him leading the Department of War.”Of the eight articles Mr. Massie introduced, three accuse Mr. Hegseth of illegally launching and sustaining the war with Iran, one accuses Mr. Hegseth of directing the military in a manner that resulted in more than 200 civilian deaths at a Tehran school, while another accuses Mr. Hegseth of illegally kidnapping President Maduro of Venezuela A fourth accuses Mr. Hegseth of illegally launching strikes against the Houthis in Yemen. Another article of impeachment argues that Mr. Hegseth’s strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats which began last year were illegal.The sixth article of impeachment, however, has nothing to do with Mr. Hegseth’s combat directives. Instead, Mr. Massie believes Mr. Hegseth has committed high crimes and misdemeanors by suppressing the free speech rights of Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat and retired Navy combat pilot from Arizona. Last year, Mr. Kelly and other congressional Democrats put out a video reminding servicemembers that they have the right to refuse to carry out illegal orders. Mr. Hegseth promptly sought to dock Mr. Kelly’s retirement pay, and President Trump himself reposted a message on Truth Social calling for Mr. Kelly and other Democrats to be executed. “Using the powers of his office, Secretary Hegseth retaliated against and sought to intimidate United States Senator Mark Kelly for his statement through a scheme or course of conduct intended to interfere with Congress’ constitutional authority to oversee the Executive Branch,” Mr. Massie’s sixth article of impeachment states. Mr. Massie argues that Mr. Hegseth sought to “grossly expand Article II power at the expense of both the Legislative and Judicial Branches of government.”

Hegseth Survives Impeachment Attempt After Republicans Vote To Kill Massie’s Articles

Hegseth Survives Impeachment Attempt After Republicans Vote To Kill Massie’s Articles

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