Massie Files Articles of Impeachment Against Defense Secretary Hegseth Over Iran War and Strikes

On Monday, the first day the House met after the midterm elections, Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie stood on the floor and read aloud from a resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He accused the secretary of carrying out unlawful orders and of being a threat to the Constitution. The timing was deliberate: Massie filed the moment the chamber opened for business.

The resolution is not new. Massie first raised its eight articles of impeachment in September, when Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson avoided a vote by sending lawmakers home early. This time the context is different. Democrats won landslide victories in both chambers and have pledged to investigate President Donald Trump's administration once they take control in January.

The first charge is that Hegseth helped wage the war on Iran without congressional authorisation, as the War Powers Resolution requires. Massie also alleges that Hegseth cultivated a culture of warmaking that brushed aside rules of engagement and caused civilian harm. He pointed to the US bombing of a school in Minab, Iran, at the start of the US-Israel war in February. That strike killed more than 150 people, about 120 of them children.

Other articles cover US strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, which the resolution says ignored mandatory safeguards and amounted to extrajudicial killings. The remaining charges involve the abduction of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the restriction of media access to the Pentagon, which Massie frames as suppressing free speech, and an unlawful war in Yemen against the Houthis.

Massie has been a frequent critic of the administration, especially over Iran. That has cost him: Trump backed a rival Republican who defeated Massie in this year's primary, which is why he is described as outgoing. At a news conference, he said he would welcome votes from any colleagues who want Hegseth gone, even those who have not read the bill. "I understand that some of them just want to vote for this because they just want to see Hegseth gone," he said. "I welcome their vote." He urged Hegseth to resign before Democrats take over, predicting their investigations will bring testimony from senior officials about how the Defense Department has been run.

Hegseth was defiant. He told reporters that his critics have policy disagreements that are really disagreements "with success," and that if people want to litigate the administration's military actions, he is "happy to do it all day long." He is expected to hold a news conference on Tuesday.

The arithmetic is difficult. Impeachment needs a majority of the 435-member House, and removal requires two-thirds of the 100-member Senate, or 67 votes. Democrats are expected to hold about 54 Senate seats. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, expected to become speaker in January, said over the weekend that he backs impeachment, saying Hegseth "engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran." Johnson, by contrast, said Cabinet secretaries are not impeached "for political gain or for cheap tricks."

Trump said Hegseth is guilty only of "winning two wars," and argued it is hard to impeach someone who saved the Middle East and Israel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Hegseth has done a good job and called the Iran war necessary, though not necessarily popular. Administration officials have acknowledged the war's unpopularity, and some have conceded it likely cost Republicans the midterms. Under the current Congress the measure is unlikely to advance; the pressure point is January, when the new Democratic majority is sworn in.