Republican Thomas Massie has tabled a motion in the House of Representatives to impeach Minister of War Pete Hegseth. Hegseth is preparing for battle.
The House of Representatives is rapidly approaching a vote on the impeachment of Hegseth, who plans to hold a rare press conference on Tuesday morning to counter the attempt, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Massie has long been an opponent of the Trump administration. He lost the primary election in Kentucky to Trump’s candidate and will therefore be leaving Congress in January. He now intends to bring his career in Washington D.C. to a close in this manner.
Among the reasons cited is the war with Iran. Massie claims that Hegseth unlawfully initiated the war against Iran and ignored a congressional resolution to withdraw troops from the conflict.
Democrat calls for the impeachment of Defence Minister Pete Hegseth
He is also critical of the arrest of Venezuela’s former president Nicolás Maduro – which Massie describes as an act of war against a sovereign nation. Furthermore, Massie is highly critical of the attacks on small boats carrying drug smugglers, which, according to the Pentagon, were laden with fentanyl bound for the US.
Fentanyl is an extremely lethal narcotic substance which, during Biden’s time in the White House, claimed the lives of far more people than the number of American soldiers who lost their lives in the First World War. Some claim that up to 100,000 Americans died each year from fentanyl overdoses, which brings the death toll close to that of American soldiers in the Second World War.
Massie’s attempt to force a vote on impeachment in the House of Representatives comes just days after voters’ frustration over the unpopular war in Iran contributed to the Republicans’ defeat in the mid-term elections.
Massie writes on X:
I’ve seen some of my colleagues say @SecWar Hegseth has been effective and they agree with the war, so they’ll vote not to impeach.
That’s not the question though. The question is whether he committed impeachable acts, and the answer is yes, eight times.
https://t.co/JnrtWL15Sb
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) 9 November 2026
Hegseth has previously stated that he is not afraid that his own party will impeach him, and that he fears neither the fuss nor threats of impeachment.
– “If you want to bring up what we did in Epic Fury, Rough Rider or the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, then you’re bringing up something to do with the troops and what they achieved, which is historic,” Hegseth told journalists earlier on Monday.
– There are many politically motivated people who may have major political disagreements, but their disagreements are about success.
The Democrats’ leader in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, surprises no one when he supports the proposal to impeach the Secretary of War.
Massie is trying to pretend he is doing Hegseth a favour. Last week, he stated that Hegseth would receive a more lenient treatment in an impeachment trial now than he would risk facing once the Democrats take control of both houses of Congress in January.
