A week after voters handed Republicans a stinging rebuke, the GOP faces an early test on whether it will distance itself from President Donald Trump and heed the concerns that helped drive voters away.
Over the past six months, an overwhelming majority of House Republicans have repeatedly rejected Democratic legislation to curtail Trump’s Iran war. In coming days, however, Republicans will get to vote on whether one of the chief architects of that conflict — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — needs to go.
Rep. Thomas Massie — the Kentucky Republican who lost his GOP primary and is now leading the impeachment effort against Hegseth — told reporters Monday he suspects there are “several” Republicans who will vote with Democrats to impeach the embattled Pentagon chief.
“It’s going to be everybody’s conscience, and then they’ll have to live with that vote,” Massie said. “They’re going to have to live with that vote two years from now, if they’re not part of the retirement caucus.”
“And if they are part of the retirement caucus,” Massie continued, “what do they have to lose?”
While Massie was confident some of his Republican colleagues would join him in voting to oust Hegseth, Democrats may not even need more GOP votes for the resolution to succeed.
On Monday night, only 399 House lawmakers voted. Of those, 202 of them were Democrats, meaning Democrats may effectively hold a majority this week during the lame-duck session.
Although more lawmakers may show up later in the week, neither Democrats nor Republicans expect full attendance. And, as Massie suggested, there could be some GOP lawmakers who join him and Democrats to vote to impeach Hegseth.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb. — an Air Force veteran who is retiring from Congress at the end of the year — told reporters Monday that he is “wrestling” with whether to back impeachment.
Bacon argued he has issues with Hegseth’s leadership — including the firing of generals — but he said he’s not fully comfortable with the articles that Massie introduced Monday.
“It’s a gray zone for some of us,” Bacon said. “I don’t think he’s been a good secretary. Would you impeach a guy for that? It has to be a high crime or misdemeanor.”
Rep. Kevin Kiley, a Republican turned Independent who lost his re-election bid last week, told MS NOW he had not yet read the articles Massie had put forward.
“I vote for every bill based on the merits, and so I’m going to have to read the text before I make any sort of decision,” he said.
Others were definitive.
Rep. Mike Lawler — who lost a re-election bid in New York — said he would vote no, arguing that the impeachment effort against Hegseth lacked the process Republicans had demanded in 2024 when they pursued charges against then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“Unlike with Mayorkas, there have been no hearings, no investigations, no opportunity for the Secretary to answer the charges (whatever they are), and no actual process,” Lawler told MS NOW in a text. “One member should not be foisting this upon the entire Congress.”
And Warren Davidson — an Ohio Republican who did win re-election, but has broken with his party to join Democrats in backing Iran war powers resolutions this year — told MS NOW he is opposed to impeaching Hegseth.
“I think Sec. Hegseth has been effective in his job,” he said. “Trying to impeach him for a decision he didn’t make is blame-shifting from Congress and the president.”
Meanwhile, Democrats are expected to support the resolution overwhelmingly, if not unanimously.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries — who is poised to become Speaker in the new Congress — said he is a “hard yes.”
“He shredded the law and the Constitution with impunity, and there is no circumstance that justifies Pete Hegseth continuing to hold this position,” Jeffries said Monday.
Of course, even if the House adopts the articles this week, the Senate would still have to decide whether to convict Hegseth. And there’s a chance senators could dismiss the articles outright.
Nearly three years ago, after the GOP-controlled House adopted articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, the Democratic majority in the Senate voted to dismiss the charges.
But Massie on Monday rejected the idea that his impeachment resolution was purely symbolic.
“Read the eight articles. It’s not a policy disagreement,” Massie said. “Because he’s violated the international norms of war and violated our own conventions of war, he’s put our own soldiers and sailors at risk.”
The eight articles accuse the Pentagon secretary of, among other things, waging war against Iran without congressional authorization, ordering extrajudicial killings in connection with the boat strikes in the Caribbean, and participating in the kidnapping of a sovereign foreign leader — namely, former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
At the very least, Massie argued his impeachment effort would be a success if it pressured the president to remove Hegseth.
The president has thus far stood by Hegseth, and Hegseth is scheduled to hold a press conference Tuesday morning to defend his record.
In a video posted on social media last week, Hegseth dismissed the impeachment effort as “political theater.”
“A disgruntled defeated congressman along with all his Democrat allies has dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly — just like they tried against President Trump twice,” Hegseth said.
Massie previously threatened to force an impeachment vote against Hegseth back in September, which — in Massie’s telling — prompted House GOP leaders to cancel scheduled votes and send lawmakers home to the campaign trail early.
Since then, the voters have spoken, stripping the GOP of control of Congress. Voter poll data showed that about one-third of voters in this month’s election ranked the Iran war as “crucial” in their decisionmaking about their vote — ranking just behind other concerns, like the cost of living.
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