{"id":4095,"date":"2026-11-10T09:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T04:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4095"},"modified":"2026-11-10T09:00:35","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T04:00:35","slug":"us-house-begins-impeachment-process-against-hegseth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4095","title":{"rendered":"US House begins impeachment process against Hegseth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth calls himself the secretary of war, part of his effort to rebrand a military he said was too weak and \u201cwoke\u201d \u200bwhen he took office last year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, with an expected House impeachment vote this week, he could soon share something in common with an actual secretary of war.<\/p>\n

William Belknap, who \u200cheld that title in 1876, became the first, and to date the only, civilian leader of the US military to be impeached by Congress.<\/p>\n

US Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, introduced eight articles of impeachment on Monday, setting off a two-day clock for a potential House vote on charges including waging war against Iran without congressional approval and other abuses of power.<\/p>\n

Massie, addressing reporters, cautioned that Republican leadership could try to avoid a straight vote on impeachment by trying to dismiss it with a procedural motion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey \u200bmay try to get out of an actual vote on the substance of this. We should have a vote and a rigorous debate on these eight articles of impeachment,\u201d he told a press \u200bconference.<\/p>\n

Congressional sources say the resolution may have the votes to pass even with President Donald Trump\u2019s Republicans still controlling the House until Democrats take over on January \u20603.<\/p>\n

Conviction appears unlikely in the Senate, however, where a two-thirds majority is required and Republicans hold 53 of 100 seats.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump, in an interview with Reuters on Monday, strongly defended Hegseth, pointing to the \u200bUS military\u2019s performance in Iran and Venezuela: \u201cWell, he won two wars. I don\u2019t know how you can impeach him.\u201d<\/p>\n

He later told a White House press conference he would stand by Hegseth even if he is impeached, and \u200bcalled Massie a \u201cstone-cold loser.\u201d<\/p>\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson opposed the effort, saying impeachment \u201cin the middle of hostilities abroad\u201d would be \u201ca terrible thing for our allies and our enemies to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voter anger over the war helped Democrats win control of Congress in last week\u2019s midterm elections<\/u><\/a>, intensifying Republican divisions over a conflict that Vice President JD Vance has publicly questioned<\/u><\/a> and Hegseth has defended as \u201ccourageous and historic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accused of taking huge kickbacks, Belknap handed President Ulysses Grant his resignation ahead of his scheduled impeachment vote and, according to \u200ba Senate history, \u201cburst into tears.\u201d<\/p>\n

The House impeached him anyway, but the Senate later acquitted him after falling short of the required two-thirds majority.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Hegseth is promising to stay and fight.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Hegseth not worried<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Hegseth has mounted a social media campaign, saying in a defiant video message last week that he would not back down.<\/p>\n

He also drew a comparison to Trump, who was impeached twice, saying: \u201cIt didn\u2019t work against President Trump, and it \u200cwon\u2019t work with \u2060me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he had enough Republican support to defeat the impeachment push, Hegseth said on Monday: \u201cWe\u2019re not worried about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He announced a Tuesday press conference, his first at the Pentagon since May.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also White House national security adviser, called the impeachment push \u201cunfair,\u201d telling reporters: \u201cI think Pete\u2019s done a good job. I really do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, speaking with Reuters, extolled Hegseth\u2019s performance in the Iran war, which is at an impasse, and with Venezuela, where the US military kidnapped that country\u2019s president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, in a surprise January commando raid on his compound in the Venezuelan capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, what about impeaching the people from Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and all \u200bof that, where we fought forever, and nothing happened?\u201d \u200bTrump asked.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Defence spending at risk?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Some Republican lawmakers have \u2060expressed concern that if Hegseth stays, his strained relationship with Congress will undermine the Trump administration\u2019s push for a $1.5 trillion defence spending package.<\/p>\n

Massie, a Trump critic who is leaving office in January, warned in a statement on Monday that impeachment would be \u201cmuch gentler\u201d than what\u2019s in store for Hegseth once Democrats take control in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey \u200bwill hold hearings and trials. President Trump should replace Secretary Hegseth now while he can still get a replacement confirmed in the Senate,\u201d Massie said.<\/p>\n

Democrats have \u200bpromised to investigate Hegseth over \u2060issues including the firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other senior leaders.<\/p>\n

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Sunday he was a \u201chard yes\u201d on a measure to impeach Hegseth.<\/p>\n

US Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat who is expected to become majority leader, said on Monday the Senate needs to put Hegseth on trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cHegseth waged this war illegally, in open defiance of the Constitution and multiple War Powers Resolutions this Congress passed to \u2060end the fighting,\u201d \u200bhe said.<\/p>\n

Massie\u2019s articles of impeachment<\/u><\/a> <\/u>accuse Hegseth of \u201chigh crimes and misdemeanours\u201d ranging from waging the Iran war to various alleged abuses of power, \u200bincluding violating the free speech rights of US Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat.<\/p>\n

Last year, Hegseth sought to prosecute Kelly after he and five other Democrats in Congress with backgrounds in the military and intelligence urged US troops to refuse illegal orders.<\/p>\n

Hegseth accused them \u200bof sedition, something Trump at the time said in a social media post was \u201cpunishable by DEATH!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth calls himself the secretary of war, part of his effort to rebrand a military he said was too weak and \u201cwoke\u201d \u200bwhen he took office last year. Now, with an expected House impeachment vote this week, he could soon share something in common with an actual secretary of war. William Belknap, who \u200cheld that title in 1876, became the first, and to date the only, civilian leader of the US military to be impeached by Congress. US Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, introduced eight…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}