Massie Forces House Vote on Impeaching Defense Secretary Hegseth

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., took to the House floor Tuesday to launch a long-shot effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, citing a lengthy resolution detailing alleged "high crimes and misdemeanors."

Massie spent more than an hour reading the 34-page resolution aloud, which includes eight articles of impeachment. The resolution states that Hegseth has "acted in a manner contrary to his trust as Secretary of Defense and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States of America."

The articles of impeachment accuse Hegseth of ignoring laws intended to minimize civilian casualties, administering an "unlawful war" in Yemen, ordering extrajudicial killings, suppressing free speech, and kidnapping a sovereign leader, referring to the U.S. capture of Nicolas Maduro earlier this year.

Massie said he introduced the impeachment articles to create a historical record of what he described as illegal conduct by both President Donald Trump and Hegseth. "The president has exceeded, and Secretary Hegseth specifically, in many ways himself, and sometimes directed by illegal orders from the president, they have exceeded all norms for rules of engagement for how you use or misuse our military, to take oil from another country, to kidnap a foreign leader, like somebody needs to put a marker in history, and that's what this is," Massie explained to reporters.

The Pentagon defended Hegseth in a statement to ABC News, with Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson calling him a "transformative leader for the Department of War" and asserting that the department is "unified behind the Secretary’s vision."

Massie stated that he chose Tuesday to introduce the resolution because it was the last possible day to force consideration of such a measure before the midterm elections, given Speaker Mike Johnson's decision to shorten the legislative calendar. "Two days from now is the end of our session before we go on recess, and there can be a vote within two days. So I had to do it today," Massie said.

Massie, a conservative known for his constitutionalist stance, recently lost a primary election after his opponent received an endorsement from Trump. It remains uncertain if the impeachment vote will succeed, given the narrow Republican majority in the House. House leadership could potentially table the resolution or cancel legislative sessions to avoid a vote.