Republican Massie moves to impeach Hegseth

WASHINGTON – Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment Tuesday against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing him of defying Congress and illegally continuing the Iran war.

“In all of this, Secretary Hegseth abused the powers entrusted to him as Secretary of Defense by subordinating the constitutional limits on the use of military force and the laws governing the conduct of hostilities to his own policy objectives,” the 34-page resolution states.

Massie, a longtime critic of the Trump administration, read the eight articles of impeachment aloud from the House floor after the chamber convened at noon.

The first three articles allege that the secretary violated the War Powers Resolution of 1973, arguing that Hegseth’s Defense Department is “waging the Iran war despite no declaration of war, statutory authorization, attack on the United States or imminent threat.”

Massie alleges that Hegseth initiated the conflict unlawfully, defied Congress’ order to withdraw from the conflict and incurred unnecessary civilian casualties.

The Republican took issue in his fourth article of impeachment with a U.S. strike on an Iranian primary school that killed more than 100 children at the start of the Middle Eastern conflict. The strike “exposed systemic failures in the Department of Defense targeting process,” he wrote.

The Pentagon has yet to release the findings of an investigation into the Feb. 28 airstrike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School. At least 168 people died in the attack, most of them children, according to Iranian state media.

The other half of the articles of impeachment include: the strikes on alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean; suppressing the free speech of Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., after he appeared in a video telling troops they could refuse unlawful orders; along with military actions that include the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and Operation Rough Rider, a 52-day bombing campaign in Yemen.

“Secretary Hegseth has been a transformative leader for the Department of War,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement, using the secondary name for the Department of Defense. “Standards and merit are back, our arsenal is stronger than ever before, and morale and recruitment across every service are at all-time highs. The entire department is unified behind the secretary’s vision and will continue working to put our warfighters and America first.”

Massie, one of the authors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, has clashed with his party in recent years.

The sitting congressman lost his May primary bid for reelection to former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, a candidate backed by Trump.

Hegseth also backed Gallrein and criticized Massie on the campaign trail.

“President Trump needs reinforcements, and that’s what warfighters do. They stand behind leaders and have their back,” Hegseth said at a May 18 event. “War fighters understand mission, they understand teamwork, they understand loyalty, and they understand that in the middle of a fight, you don’t weaken your own side to advance to the objective.”

Massie’s effort is unlikely to succeed in a GOP-controlled Congress. But the resolution means the House will be forced to vote on it this week, before the body takes an extended recess ahead of the midterm elections in November.

Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., led a group of nine Democrats who introduced an impeachment resolution against Hegseth in April. Some of the charges accused Hegseth of unauthorized war in Iran, targeting civilians and mishandling classified information.

Massie’s move, however, is a first-of-its kind effort to go after a Cabinet member in the same party.