House Votes 211-204 to Bury Massie's Hegseth Impeachment in Committee

The House voted 211 to 204 on Tuesday to refer the articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to committee, a procedural move that effectively kills the effort led by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., NPR reported.

The vote short-circuits any floor vote on the articles and virtually guarantees the measure will not be taken up before the current session of Congress expires. It handed a surprise reprieve to a Defense Secretary who had been facing an impeachment vote by the full House as early as Wednesday.

Massie reintroduced the articles on Monday, accusing Hegseth of high crimes and misdemeanors tied to the war with Iran and to U.S. strikes on Iran and on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific. The resolution also cited the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro without congressional authorization, and the effort to punish Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., over a video telling service members they can refuse illegal orders.

It was Massie's second try. He first sought to bring the resolution to the floor before the midterm elections, prompting Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to call an early recess to avoid the vote. That caused the resolution to expire, which is why Massie filed it again this week.

Hegseth defended himself at a rare Pentagon press conference on Tuesday and went after his accuser, calling Massie a "disgruntled and defeated congressman." He did not back away from any of the operations at issue. "I stand behind every one of these operations," Hegseth said. "I was proud to execute them, and I would do it again tomorrow."

President Trump had offered his own backing a day earlier, during a wide-ranging and impromptu press briefing at the White House. "I'll stand by him," Trump said. "He won two wars. He was in charge. We all won."

The reprieve may not last. Democrats won control of Congress in the midterm elections, and they have promised vigorous investigations into Hegseth's Pentagon once they assume the majority in January. Whether they will mount another impeachment effort remains unclear.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who is expected to be the next Speaker of the House, was less ambiguous about Hegseth's future in an interview with NPR last week. "He's got to go," Jeffries said.

For now, the Defense Secretary has survived a fight that exposed how little room Republican leaders have left to protect him. The 211-204 margin was narrow, and the maneuver that saved Hegseth is the same kind of procedural tool Johnson used before the election to keep the issue off the floor. Massie now has almost no calendar left in this session to force another vote.

Hegseth's critics say the underlying questions about the Iran war, the boat strikes and the Maduro operation have not gone away. They are likely to resurface in committee hearings and subpoena fights once Democrats hold the gavels.