US House of Representatives Thwarts Effort to Impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth

The U.S. House of Representatives thwarted an attempt to proceed with impeachment proceedings against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, after voting 211 to 204 to refer the articles of impeachment against him to a specialized committee for review, effectively freezing the impeachment effort.

The voting result came after intensive efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to defend Secretary Hegseth, while the latter sought to rally political support during a press conference held earlier at the U.S. Department of Defense headquarters (the Pentagon), issuing a direct appeal to Trump and his allies in Congress.

Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky had led the push to impeach the Defense Secretary, citing criticisms related to the management of the war against Iran and Hegseth’s leadership style at the Pentagon. However, the initiative failed to gain the support of any other Republican representative.

For his part, U.S. President Donald Trump described the Democrats’ attempt to impeach the Defense Secretary as a “resounding failure,” accusing them of continuing to use state institutions as a weapon and misusing them.

Trump defended his defense secretary in a post on his platform, Truth Social, asserting that Hegseth had succeeded in Venezuela and Iran, and noting that all Republican representatives, except for the “loser” Thomas Massie, voted against Hegseth’s impeachment.

Earlier, at a press conference at the Pentagon, Secretary Hegseth described the attempts to hold him accountable and impeach him in Congress as a “political farce,” viewing them as targeting the U.S. military establishment and seeking to politicize the armed forces in the wake of U.S. military operations against Iran.

Hegseth stated that the efforts to hold him accountable “are not based on high crimes and misdemeanors or treason or bribery, but are driven by political disagreements.”