Hegseth impeachment vote fails in House, Digi Mart USA News: Lame-duck Republicans have successfully blocked an attempt to impeach US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for “high crimes and misdemeanors” in relation to the Iran war and extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean.
The vote in the House, two months before a wave of Democratic midterm winners take their seats, could have gone the other way with the backing of eight of the 11 Democrats who were absent. Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie, who lost his party’s nomination for re-election to a Trump pick, had brought the articles of impeachment to the House and sought a vote.
However, the attempt failed when a motion passed 211 to 204 on Tuesday to send it to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, effectively killing it. Eleven Democrats and seven Republicans did not register a vote on the motion.
Among the Democratic absentees was former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who reportedly flew back to California before the vote to attend a Veterans Day event and receive a “lifetime advocate” award. Another absentee, Lou Correa, said he “vehemently” supported the impeachment but had been forced to stay in California for a medical procedure and his doctor had advised him not to travel.
Several Democrats who were in Washington blamed traffic delays for not reaching the Capitol in time. Nevada Democrat Steven Horsford told The Washington Sun that a traffic incident and a police-escorted bus caused a delay that resulted in the vote closing before he and other members could reach the chamber.
Illinois Democrat Jonathan Jackson gave the same explanation in a statement on X, and Washington Democrat Marilyn Strickland’s office told a newspaper she was “stuck behind a motorcade and missed the vote by one minute.” Colorado Democrat Brittany Petterson reportedly said she was “denied the ability to vote” but did not give details.
California Democrat Sydney Kamlager-Dove expressed anger at her colleagues afterward. “We knew that this vote was coming, so people should have gotten their raggedy selves up these steps to vote,” she told reporters.
“There is no reason why we should have lost this vote because of attendance issues.” New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CNN that representatives who missed the vote had been sent to Washington “to do a job.”
Massie said he brought the vote because he wanted to force Hegseth to answer for his conduct in office or resign. The articles of impeachment alleged that the secretary unlawfully made war with Iran, ordered the killing of Iranian civilians, and ordered the extrajudicial killings of at least 221 people alleged to be smuggling narcotics in the Caribbean, including illegal secondary strikes against shipwrecked survivors.
Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday, hours before the vote, that the impeachment attempt was “a political spectacle driven by ego and resentment… a farce and a stunt.” He said no Secretary of War or Defense in the 250-year history of the American Republic had been impeached for carrying out lawful military operations, and that his actions had been lawful.
He described Massie’s accusations as a “policy disagreement” rather than high crimes and misdemeanors. He also said US attacks on boats in the Caribbean had left 218 “narco terrorists” dead.
Republicans had grown more reluctant to back impeachment after Trump reasserted his support for Hegseth, with some reportedly worried that a successful impeachment would also implicate the president in illegal actions. Massie said afterward, “What I found out tonight is [Republicans] still haven’t broken from the spell of Donald Trump.
He still controls this conference.”
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries told a Politico reporter that he had not “had a conversation with anyone on the floor team about what may or may not have happened,” but added, “this is not the end of it, it’s just the beginning.” He said he would discuss with members whether to mount a new impeachment effort in the next Congress.
Trump afterward said the Democrats’ attempt to impeach Hegseth had “miserably failed.”
