Image via U.S. Department of Defense / Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Pete Hegseth's official portrait, January 2025.
The House voted 211 to 204 on Tuesday night to send the impeachment case against Pete Hegseth to committee, ending the effort for now. The vote came a day after Rep. Thomas Massie filed eight articles of impeachment against the defence secretary.
The move was procedural, not a vote on the charges themselves. By sending the resolution to the House Judiciary Committee, the House put it on a shelf. The committee is run by Trump allies and is not expected to take the articles up before this Congress ends on 3 January. Most reports say the articles will then formally expire. Massie disagrees. He told CNN he believes impeachment resolutions, unlike other bills, carry into the next Congress.
Only Massie broke ranks
Massie was the only Republican to vote against sending the case to committee. He sided with the Democrats, who wanted a straight vote on the articles. Eighteen members did not vote at all: 11 Democrats, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and 7 Republicans.
President Trump celebrated the result on Truth Social. "The Democrats' attempt to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has miserably FAILED!" he wrote. "Every single Republican, except Thomas Massie, a major LOSER, voted in favor of Pete."
Hegseth had his say earlier on Tuesday, at his first Pentagon press conference since May. He called the bid "a farce", "a stunt", "slander" and "sabotage". "This is not patriotism. This is sabotage," he said. He compared himself to Trump, who was impeached twice and came back. "Both times he came back stronger," Hegseth said. "They will fail again."
What the eight articles say
The articles are allegations, not findings. Massie first filed them on 15 September, but that version lapsed. He refiled them on Monday 9 November as a 34-page resolution, H.Res. 1655. Here is what they cover.
| Articles | What they allege |
|---|---|
| 1–3 | Iran — directing and sustaining military action past the War Powers Resolution's 60-day limit, with no declaration of war or approval from Congress. The war began on 28 February. |
| 4 | Iran — ignoring laws that require US forces to limit civilian casualties, linked to a strike on a girls' school in Minab on 28 February that killed scores of children. |
| 5–6 | Venezuela — directing the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, and ordering lethal strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, with more than 220 deaths alleged. |
| 7 | Yemen — unlawful strikes and operations, including Operation Rough Rider, the 2025 US–British campaign against the Houthis. |
| 8 | Free speech — punishing Sen. Mark Kelly after he and five other Democrats urged troops to refuse illegal orders. Hegseth sought to prosecute Kelly and strip him of his retired Navy captain rank. |
Massie says the case is about the law, not about how well Hegseth has done the job. "There's no argument in these impeachment articles that he's ineffective," he said. "The argument here is that he's broken laws and he's violated the Constitution." Hegseth says he was proud to carry out the operations and would do it all again tomorrow.
What happens next
For now, the case sits with the Judiciary Committee, where it is expected to stay. But the story is not over. Democrats take control of Congress in January after winning both chambers in the 3 November midterms, and they are expected to bring the effort back with a new version of the articles. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has already called himself a "hard yes" on the resolution.
Massie himself leaves Congress in January. He lost his Republican primary in May to a Trump-backed challenger, Ed Gallrein, and his term ends when the new Congress is sworn in. The vote was the latest party-line fight in a divided Washington. Former congressman Joe Scarborough, who spent six years in the House before moving to television, has covered this kind of standoff for years on Morning Joe.
One thing the vote did not do: settle the charges. Impeachment is a charge, not a conviction. Even if the House had voted to impeach Hegseth, removing him would have taken two-thirds of the Senate, which was never likely. The articles now wait for a committee that shows no sign of acting — and for a new Congress that may pick them up again.
Read More: Pete Hegseth Biography, Age, Height, Net Worth, Wife & Secretary of War
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