WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives voted 211 to 204 on Tuesday evening to refer eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the House Judiciary Committee, effectively halting the effort to remove him for the remainder of this Congress.
The procedural vote, which came largely along party lines, stopped the resolution from reaching a direct vote on the House floor. With Republicans in control of the House and its committees until early January, the committee is not expected to advance the articles, and the resolution will expire on January 3 if it receives no vote on its merits by then.
Representative Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who introduced the articles on Monday, was the only Republican to vote against sending them to committee. Every Democrat who voted also opposed the referral, seeking to keep the impeachment effort alive and moving toward a floor decision. Eleven Democrats and seven Republicans did not vote. The margin was seven votes, fewer than the number of Democrats who were absent.
The eight articles accused Hegseth of high crimes and misdemeanors, including waging war against Iran without an imminent threat or congressional approval, ordering extrajudicial killings of suspected militants, and ignoring laws meant to protect civilians in conflict zones. Hegseth has denied wrongdoing and has described the charges as policy disagreements rather than impeachable offenses. President Donald Trump has pledged to stand by him.
House Republican leaders had moved quickly to derail the effort. Speaker Mike Johnson called the push a stunt and warned lawmakers against impeaching the defense secretary while the United States is engaged in military action in the Middle East. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, by contrast, has said he is a “hard yes” on the resolution, and Democrats supplied nearly all of the votes against the referral.
Massie, who lost his primary election in May to a Trump-backed challenger, will not return to Congress in January. He said on Tuesday that he will not introduce another impeachment resolution before his term ends, but he plans to force a House vote on a separate war powers resolution concerning Iran.
The vote does not end the matter. Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in the November 3 midterm elections and will hold the majorities needed to revive proceedings when the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2027. Members of the incoming majority could introduce a new impeachment resolution then. If the House had voted to impeach Hegseth during the current Congress, the Senate could have held a trial next year under Democratic control.
The House has voted to impeach only two cabinet officials in American history, and the Senate did not convict either one. Impeachment by the House would amount to formally bringing charges, like an indictment in a criminal case; removal from office would require conviction by two-thirds of the Senate, a much higher hurdle that is widely seen as unlikely.
The articles grew out of the war with Iran, which began on February 28, and out of claims about civilian deaths in American military operations. Hegseth has rejected the claim that American forces deliberately targeted civilians, calling it a lie, and he issued 33 new directives to the armed forces this week. The debate over the war, and over Congress’s role in authorizing it, is now set to carry into the new year, when a Democratic Congress will have the power to reopen it.
Source: The Hindu Business Line; Reuters
