The House voted 211 to 204 on Tuesday to send eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee, which Republicans still run. It is a way of burying them without ever voting on the charges. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who wrote the articles, was the only Republican to vote against the referral.
The man they protected is the same one who fired Gen. CQ Brown Jr., the Joint Chiefs’ second Black chairman. NewsOne reported that Hegseth has also blocked promotions of Black people and women in the Navy. Black service members and veterans are among those who pay when a Pentagon chief answers to no one.
Massie’s articles accuse Hegseth of launching a war against Iran without congressional approval and of overseeing boat strikes that legal scholars call extrajudicial killings. Hegseth called the effort “a farce” and “a stunt.” Trump wrote that “the Democrats’ attempt to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has miserably FAILED!” The attempt was Massie’s, a Republican. Democrats joined it.
Not every Republican is comfortable. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa asked publicly: “Is he being truthful in the way the war is going?” In the House, that doubt did not become a vote. Only Massie broke ranks, and he is a lame duck who lost his primary in May.
The vote came a week after Republicans lost the House. Democrats take control in January, and Hakeem Jeffries, who is set to become the first Black Speaker, has said Hegseth “has got to go.” Removing a cabinet officer still needs a two-thirds Senate vote, which no one expects.
That is the argument Republicans will make: the Senate will never convict, so why vote. Our answer is the record. A defense secretary accused of taking the country to war without Congress, and of pushing out the officers who look like the troops he commands, deserved a recorded vote. Sending the articles to a friendly committee spared Republicans from having to cast one.
The Judiciary Committee decides whether the articles ever come back. When Democrats hold the gavel in January, they can ask the question again.
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