Thomas Massie on Capitol Hill in Washington DC.
Congressman says defense secretary repeatedly violated constitution through his handling of Iran war Republican congressman Thomas Massie on Tuesday proposed impeaching Pete Hegseth, saying the defense secretary had repeatedly violated the constitution through his handling of war with Iran and the deaths of civilians in conflicts worldwide.
The proposal by Massie, an iconoclastic lawmaker who lost his primary earlier this year after Donald Trump and Hegseth urged voters to oppose him, may put House Republicans in a bind just weeks before the 3 November midterm elections, where they are defending their control of Congress.
Under the rules of the House of Representatives, the articles must be voted on by Thursday, forcing Republicans to weigh in on one of the most prominent advocates of the war with Iran, which has gone on far longer than Trump said it initially would, and grown unpopular with the public.
“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 statement after reading the text of his resolution on the floor of the House.
“Secretary Hegseth’s constitutional violations extend beyond the illegal war in Iran.
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.
If we are to remain true to our oath to ‘support and defend the Constitution of the United States,’ Congress must not turn a blind eye to Secretary Hegseth’s unconstitutional and illegal actions.” Massie’s resolution outlines eight alleged violation of the constitution by Hegseth, a former Fox News host and army national guard officer who as defense secretary has become a pugnacious defender of the president’s military politics.
These include attacking Iran without first seeking Congress’s permission, and ignoring a war powers resolution the House and Senate approved in June that would require an end to the conflict.
The resolution also accused Hegseth of “ignoring” laws that would have minimized civilian casualties, and specifically cites a US strike on a school in Minab, Iran that killed more than 168 people.
Other articles allege Hegseth violated the constitution with the “extrajudicial killings” of at least 221 people on boats suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean sea and eastern Pacific ocean, and of “suppressing free speech” through his retaliation against Democratic senator Mark Kelly for his criticism of the secretary.
The final two impeachment articles accuse Hegseth of violating the constitution through his involvement in the military operation that captured Venezuela’s former president Nicolás Maduro, and a bombing campaign in Yemen that began shortly after Trump returned to the White House.
Should the resolution pass, they would head to the Senate, where the Republican leadership would have to decide whether to hold a trial of Hegseth, who has maintained Trump’s loyalty even as other cabinet secretaries – including attorney general Pam Bondi and labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer – have been shown the door.
The articles seem likely to attract many Democratic votes in the House.
Massie has previously seized on unanimous Democratic support and the razor-thin Republican majority to push through a measure that forced the release of many files related to the disgraced financier and former Trump associate Jeffrey Epstein.
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