By Timothy Frudd
& Ryan Morgan
Contributing Writers
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., on Monday introduced articles of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
Among the charges against Hegseth, Massie accused the secretary of war of violating three provisions of the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
Massie’s introduction of the articles will force the U.S. House of Representatives to vote on eight charges against Hegseth, which is expected to occur by mid-week.
“By engaging in hostilities in Iran for more than 90 days without congressional authorization, Secretary Hegseth is breaking the law and must be held accountable,” Massie said in a press release prior to introducing the articles on Monday.
“Secretary Hegseth’s constitutional violations extend beyond the illegal war in Iran,” he added. “He is abusing the power of his office to ignore congressional war powers resolutions, to kidnap foreign leaders, and to intimidate critics of the Trump administration by retaliating against them for exercising free speech.”
Massie described his effort to impeach Hegseth on Monday as a “much gentler version” of what Democratic lawmakers could do when they form the majorities in the House and Senate in January following sweeping Democratic victories in the midterm elections.
Massie warned that Democratic lawmakers will hold hearings and trials and suggested that President Donald Trump replace Hegseth while he is still able to have a replacement nominee confirmed in the Senate under a Republican majority.
The articles of impeachment included three charges of waging war in Iran without a declaration of war authorized by Congress, ignoring laws intended to minimize civilian casualties, and carrying out extrajudicial killings.
The other charges listed by Massie include kidnapping a foreign leader, suppressing free speech by retaliating against comments made by Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and engaging in an unlawful war in Yemen.
“I think the secretary has presided over an illegal war for the last several months without authorization from Congress, without funding from Congress, with no information to the Congress, and his decision to let go so many members of the military leadership with no rationale to me is incredibly disturbing,” Rep. Joseph Morelle, D-N.Y., said Monday when asked about the impeachment articles.
Speaking with reporters after visiting the Naval War College in Rhode Island on Monday, Hegseth said he is ready to defend his tenure at the Pentagon. When asked about the looming threat of impeachment, Hegseth said, “We’re not worried about that.”
“In fact, we’re going to do a press conference tomorrow morning at the Pentagon on that very topic,” he added. “So I’ll save my remarks there.”
The Tuesday press conference will be the first Hegseth has held at the Pentagon since May. It will also be his first full press conference since the Nov. 3 U.S. midterm elections, in which Republicans lost their majorities in both the House and Senate.
Following the Republican electoral defeat, Vice President JD Vance published a lengthy social media post in which he assessed that the Iran conflict cost Republicans critical electoral support heading into the midterms.
President Donald Trump has since said he doesn’t disagree with Vance’s assessment, and said that he made the right decision to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Hegseth echoed Trump’s defense of the war on Monday.
“You can’t let crazy Islamists have a nuclear bomb,” he told reporters. “And so the choice was: don’t act and wish it away, or take a bold move, which the president did.”
As he spoke with reporters on Monday, Hegseth touted other foreign policy initiatives made by the Trump administration, including urging European allies to shoulder more of the burden for their collective defense, strengthening alliances in the Pacific, and leading counter-cartel operations in the Western Hemisphere.
“There’s a lot of politically motivated people who may have substantial policy disagreements, but their disagreements are with success,” he said.
Nathan Worcester contributed to this report.
