Hegseth Survives Impeachment Effort in House

WASHINGTON–Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fended off an impeachment effort Tuesday evening in the House, after GOP votes helped to kill the effort to punish him for his actions as President Trump’s Pentagon chief.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.The House voted to refer the articles of impeachment proposed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.) back to the Judiciary Committee for consideration, effectively blocking the effort for now.

The vote was 211 to 204.House Democrats are expected to revive the effort when they take control of Congress in January.Ahead of the vote, Hegseth mounted a vigorous defense of his record in a rare news conference. He called Massie a “disgruntled and defeated congressman” and said the impeachment articles were framed as policy disagreements and nothing more.“That’s what it is: policy disagreements, not high crimes, not misdemeanors, not treason, not bribery, not the kinds of offenses the founders intended when they wrote impeachment laws,” Hegseth said.Trump said he would “stand by” Hegseth if he were impeached and praised the secretary’s press conference. “Pete Hegseth gets an ‘A’ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense,” Trump wrote on social media Tuesday immediately following the Pentagon briefing.The impeachment articles allege that the U.S. war on Iran, without a formal declaration of war or congressional approval, is illegal.

Massie accused Hegseth of dismantling a system intended to minimize civilian casualties, noting the Minab school bombing in Iran this year that killed more than 150 people including dozens of children.The articles further allege that Hegseth’s use of lethal military force against suspected drug-smuggling boats is illegal, and that he abused the Pentagon’s powers by trying to punish Sen. Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.), a retired Navy captain, for urging troops to disobey unlawful orders.Massie’s impeachment articles call out the military’s capture and kidnap of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, which it carried out at Trump’s direction.

Massie called the mission an act of war against a sovereign country.Massie said he wanted to give the House a chance to vote on each of the eight articles of impeachment, giving members the opportunity to reject some of the proposals while agreeing to others.Under the Constitution, a simple majority vote in the House is required to impeach. If the House vote had succeeded, Hegseth wouldn’t have been removed immediately from office.

The matter then would have gone to the Senate, where a trial would be held, with a two-thirds majority required to convict and remove the accused from office.Many GOP lawmakers defended Hegseth, saying he shouldn’t be blamed for setbacks in the Iran war.“I don’t agree that Pete Hegseth should be impeached. And at the end of the day, I think trying to make Pete Hegseth the scapegoat really blame shifts and avoids responsibility for Congress and, frankly, President Trump,” said Rep.

Warren Davidson (R., Ohio).Some said they were troubled by aspects of Hegseth’s leadership of the Pentagon but indicated they weren’t on board with voting to impeach him.“I personally am not a fan” of Hegseth, said Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.), who is retiring. “But also when you read Massie’s impeachment, I don’t agree with it.”Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave his first Pentagon press conference in six months to defend himself against pending impeachment charges.

Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/ShutterstockIn the Senate, retiring Republicans have become increasingly vocal with their concerns over Hegseth. Sen.

Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) has said that Hegseth has to go and that he would support impeachment, calling it a vote of no confidence. Sen.

Bill Cassidy (R., La.), who lost his re-election bid, said he would be open to a trial.Sen. Joni Ernst (R., Iowa), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she is worried about Hegseth’s leadership role at the Pentagon.“I have concerns about the way the department has been run, and I question whether the information that is coming through the secretary out of the Pentagon has been accurate in the way he is portraying the war to the president,” she said. “If there is deception coming from our Pentagon and being transmitted to the president, I would want to know that.”Other Republican senators said they would prefer to avoid a trial. “Surely, to God above, we don’t need that right now, and that’s all there is to it,” said Sen.

Jim Justice (R., W.Va.).Both parties have sought impeachments in recent years. Democrats twice impeached Trump over actions in his first term, and he was acquitted in the Senate.

The GOP-led House in 2024 impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The Democratic-led Senate rejected the charges.Write to Yoko Kubota at yoko.kubota@wsj.com, Lara Seligman at lara.seligman@wsj.com and Lindsay Wise at lindsay.wise@wsj.com