The United States House of Representatives shelved on Tuesday the attempt to impeach the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, following a vote of 211 to 204 that referred the impeachment resolution to the Judiciary Committee, a procedural maneuver that effectively blocked the process during the current Congress, reported Telemundo.
The initiative was introduced on Monday by Republican Congressman from Kentucky Thomas Massie, a frequent critic of the Trump administration who was not re-elected and will leave Congress at the end of the year, and had the support of the Democrats.
Massie was the only Republican to vote against referring the resolution to the committee; the rest of his party's lawmakers rallied behind Hegseth, including those who have privately questioned his management, believing that his actions do not meet the constitutional threshold of "high crimes and misdemeanors" required for an impeachment process.
Hours before the vote, Hegseth appeared before the media at the Pentagon —his first press conference from that location in six months— and dismissed the initiative harshly: "It's a farce and a maneuver, and everyone knows it."
The Secretary of Defense argued that the charges presented by Massie do not meet the constitutional standard: "Disagreements over public policies, not felonies, nor misdemeanors, nor treason, nor bribery, nor the types of offenses the founders had in mind when they drafted the constitutional clause on impeachment."
Hegseth also drew a parallel with the two failed impeachment processes that Congress initiated against Donald Trump during his first term, and delivered a defiant message: "They will fail again, and if supporting President Trump means being part of that group, I will do it every day of the week."
Trump backed his Secretary of Defense on Truth Social, where he labeled Massie a "TOTAL LOSER." After the voting results were confirmed, the president celebrated what he called a "vindication" and claimed that "every Republican, except Thomas Massie," voted in favor of Pete.
The 34-page resolution presented by Massie contained eight articles of impeachment primarily focused on the handling of the war against Iran, a conflict that Trump once described as a "minor incursion" lasting four to six weeks, which has now lasted nine months as of the end of this day.
The charges included engaging in hostilities without a declaration of war or authorization from Congress, disobeying a resolution passed in June that ordered the withdrawal of forces, and conducting lethal operations against vessels suspected of drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, which allegedly resulted in at least 243 deaths.
The vote took place at a time of significant political strain for the Republicans: last week, the Democrats gained control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, partly due to public dissatisfaction with high gas prices and inflation stemming from the conflict with Iran, which could cost as much as $100 billion, according to NBC News.
The blockade this Tuesday may be only temporary: the Democrats, who took control of the Senate and the House of Representatives in the elections on November 3, will assume power on January 3, 2027, and could reopen the impeachment process against Hegseth with enough majority to advance it.
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