Here's the latest
• Hegseth impeachment efforts: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called GOP Rep. Thomas Massie’s impeachment push against him “a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment.” President Donald Trump has pledged to stand by Hegseth if he is impeached, and a vote on the articles of impeachment could happen by Wednesday.
• Next GOP leader: Later today, Republicans are scheduled to hold votes for the next leader of their conference in the House and Senate. Reps. Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan are competing to be the GOP minority leader after Speaker Mike Johnson announced he would not seek the post.
• Midterms latest: There are 13 House races not yet called, and the Mississippi Senate race remains too close to call. Alaska, too, is yet to see a Senate race result.
Updates
(12)Key procedural vote on Hegseth impeachment set for today
The House of Representatives is scheduled to move on a key procedural step in the effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later today that will give an early indication of how many Republicans may be willing to rebuke the defense secretary.
The vote is just a first step and will determine whether the full House will then move ahead on the actual impeachment articles – or whether GOP leaders can squash the effort before members are confronted with the question.
The effort to impeach Hegseth is being led by outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie, who lost his primary earlier this year. This morning, Hegseth took to the podium at the Pentagon to defend himself and called Massie a defeated and disgruntled Congressman who wasn’t conducting real oversight. Hegseth has said repeatedly that policy disagreements over the Iran war and other actions are not the kinds of high crimes and misdemeanors that form the basis for impeachment.
A key question remains how many Republicans may back the effort and vote with Democrats. A number of Republican lawmakers have expressed frustration with Hegseth’s job performance, including James Comer, the top Republican on House Oversight, and Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska who is retiring at the end of the year. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, has also said he is open to voting to remove Hegseth from office if the articles make it over to the Senate for a trial.
GOP leaders will also need to ensure that they have strong attendance today. With a narrow majority, the impact of missing members could be make or break in the votes over impeachment.
Even if Hegseth is eventually impeached in the House, GOP leadership still have a few tools at their disposal to slow down or halt a trial. GOP Speaker Mike Johnson could hold onto the articles of impeachment until the end of the year, rather than expeditiously transmitting them to the Senate. And GOP senators could also move to quickly dispose of the articles or refer them to committee, essentially slow-walking the process.
Hegseth ties himself to Trump as he defends himself against impeachment effort
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth compared the articles of impeachment introduced against him to the efforts to remove President Donald Trump in his first term.
Trump was impeached twice — the first time for an alleged quid-pro-quo effort with Ukraine and the second time over the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection. He survived both removal votes in the Senate.
Trump, during an impromptu news conference on Monday, said he would stand by Hegseth if he’s impeached.
Hegseth: Impeachment effort is a "political spectacle" driven by “policy disagreements"
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth began his press conference on Tuesday morning calling GOP Rep. Thomas Massie’s impeachment push against him “a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment.”
Hegseth insisted that he had been carrying out “lawful military operations” that were “successful,” and that no previous defense secretaries had ever been impeached for doing so.
“Not once, war powers resolution or not, not under Reagan in Lebanon, not under Clinton in Kosovo, not under Obama in Iraq and Syria, not under Biden in Iraq and Syria, that’s the standard. The history is clear and it’s very straightforward,” Hegseth said.
He characterized the impeachment process against him as driven by “policy disagreements, not misdemeanors, not treason, not bribery, not the kinds of offenses the founders intended when they wrote the impeachment clause.”
Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth on Monday, accusing the defense secretary of waging war in Iran without congressional approval, ignoring laws about minimizing civilian casualties and directing the Defense Department to carry out extrajudicial killings.
Reporters at Pentagon briefing given warning to remain professional or be removed
Reporters in the Pentagon briefing room were given a “special announcement” from security ahead of Tuesday morning’s press conference with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that they would be removed from the room if they did not remain professional.
Reporters immediately began asking what would be deemed unprofessional, including if shouting questions would have them removed. The officials did not further explain what would be considered unprofessional.
The warning is highly unusual for a Pentagon briefing. Reporters asked officials of a recent example of a time when there was unprofessionalism and did not receive an answer.
How does impeachment work for Cabinet officials?
Proceedings can begin with an investigation by a House committee, the results of which would then be presented to the House to pass articles of impeachment. A simple majority is required for an impeachment vote on the House floor.
A trial could then be held in the Senate, where a supermajority, two-thirds of the body, would need to be reached to convict.
But the process doesn’t always have to unfold that way.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week in a move that could make him the third Cabinet official in US history to be impeached.
GOP leaders will have two legislative days to schedule a vote on the measure once Massie brings up the articles.
If the impeachment vote in the House is successful, it is expected that the GOP-controlled Senate would likely attempt to move to dismiss it or refer it to committee for further consideration. Both would need majority votes.
Trump has vowed to stand by Hegseth if he's impeached. Here's what else he said yesterday
President Donald Trump said that he would stand by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth if he’s impeached, calling Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who introduced articles of impeachment, “a stone cold loser.”
Trump held a press conference yesterday, after meeting with Qatar’s prime minister earlier in the day. Here’s what else he said:
- Trump said that he doesn’t believe additional action in Iran is necessary, suggesting instead that he’s prepared to allow the status quo in the region continue until Tehran agrees to a new deal.
- He also said that his deportation policy “hasn’t changed,” after suggesting in an interview that he was open to letting some undocumented immigrants stay in the country.
- The president told reporters that it’s up to GOP senators to reelect Senate Majority Leader John Thune to a leadership position, calling him a “fine man.” Republicans are scheduled to hold leadership elections today, with Thune still expected to keep his position as the top GOP senator next Congress.
CNN’s Donald Judd, Kevin Liptak, Alejandra Jaramillo and Molly English contributed to this reporting.
Here's a closer look at articles of impeachment
A key Republican lawmaker introduced eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth yesterday, in a move that could make him the third Cabinet official in US history to be impeached.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie introduced his resolution calling for Hegseth’s impeachment, and GOP leaders now have two legislative days to schedule a vote in the House.
The resolution accuses the defense secretary of waging war in Iran without congressional approval, ignoring laws about minimizing civilian casualties and directing the Defense Department to carry out extrajudicial killings.
It describes US actions in Iran, Venezuela, Yemen and its strikes on ships in the Western Hemisphere thought to be carrying narcotics.
On Iran, for example, the articles state that Hegseth “abused the powers of his high office” by “executing an unlawful order to commence hostilities despite the absence of a declaration of war, specific statutory authorization, or a national emergency created by an attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its Armed Forces.”
What is an article of impeachment?
An article of impeachment is a “documented written statement of charges relied upon as the basis for removing an individual from office,” according to Cornell Law School. It is the “constitutional equivalent of an indictment, which are used in common criminal cases,” the school says.
Once impeachment articles are brought about in the House of Representatives, they are voted on. If the articles are adopted by a majority, the official they are levied against is impeached.
After this, the House will send the articles of impeachment to the Senate, according to the United States Senate website. The Senate then sits as a High Court of Impeachment “to consider evidence, hear witnesses, and vote to acquit or convict the impeached official,” it says.
31 RNC members implore Republicans to delay leadership elections
A week after a punishing midterm election, more than 30 Republican leaders from across the country are asking House and Senate leaders to delay leadership elections for at least a month “to do some serious soul-searching about how we got here and what we must do to right the ship.”
The letter, which is being sent today to all Republican members of Congress, was obtained by CNN.
It was signed by RNC members representing states from Arkansas to Wyoming, in hopes of delaying leadership elections that are scheduled to take place today.
Several senators are pushing to delay Republican leadership elections today
Meanwhile, Republicans are scheduled to hold leadership elections today.
While Senate Majority Leader John Thune is still expected to keep his position as the top GOP senator next Congress, some senators are pushing to postpone their elections, showing potential discontent and frustration in the ranks as Republicans prepare to move into the minority.
A lawmaker will likely offer a motion to delay leadership elections, which would lead to a secret ballot. If it succeeds, the leadership election will be delayed. If it fails, as many suspect, then GOP senators will vote to reelect Thune.
Some of the senators pushing to delay, like Mike Lee and Ron Johnson, have not held back their criticism of leadership in the past, but Dave McCormick and Jim Banks have joined their demand for a delay.
GOP conference rules dictate that five senators can demand a special conference for a meeting to discuss any topic.
Banks echoed McCormick’s concerns yesterday.
Only 2 Cabinet secretaries have been impeached before now
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth faces an impeachment vote this week, which, if successful, would make him the third Cabinet secretary to be impeached.
Impeachment is an allegation of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
In 1876, Secretary of War William Belknap faced impeachment for taking kickbacks.
Belknap was the poster child for the rot in the US government during the Gilded Age. He tried to head off impeachment by resigning in a tearful admission to President Ulysses S. Grant at the White House. He was still impeached, although the Senate failed to convict Belknap.
The most recent Cabinet member to face impeachment was President Joe Biden’s secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas. House Republicans voted to impeach Mayorkas by a narrow margin over his handling of immigration at the southern border.
But the process requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict on impeachment charges, and that has never happened for an executive branch official.
For his part, Hegseth is accused of overstepping his authority in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, breaking the law by making war without congressional authorization, failing to minimize civilian casualties, extrajudicial killings and more.
The articles of impeachment against Hegseth were written, even before the midterms, by anti-war Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie.
Now that Republicans have lost the House and Senate, there is conjecture that some may join Massie and Democrats in voting to impeach Hegseth.
Massie explains the impeachment articles against Hegseth
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie explains his reasoning for bringing eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a press conference just minutes after formally introducing them on the House floor.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie explained his reasoning shortly after bringing eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth yesterday.
“There’s no argument in these impeachment articles that he’s ineffective. The argument here is that he’s broken laws and he’s violated the Constitution, and so that’s the question put in front of my colleagues,” Massie said.
He later reiterated this to CNN:
The articles focus mostly on Hegseth’s actions in the Iran war, but Massie also pointed to strikes against alleged drug boats that have killed at least 243 people.
Massie gave an emphatic “no” when asked whether any other House Republicans had already given him a commitment they would vote in support of his efforts, but added a vote would end up being “on everybody’s conscience.”
Asked why he did not move to impeach Donald Trump instead, Massie said the president should see it as “a metaphor,” though he later insisted to CNN’s Manu Raju that the Hegseth move was not a symbolic one even though it faces slim odds in the Senate.
“One of his horses shot out from under him, and then maybe he will see things differently,” Massie explained on bringing articles against Hegseth versus Trump.
Massie later predicted Hegseth won’t make it to the end of the year as Pentagon chief, telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that impeaching him now would be “polite” compared to what Democrats will do when they take over the House in January.
In his latest vow to stand by Hegseth if he’s impeached, Trump said the Pentagon chief “should be praised, not impeached.”
Trump blasted Massie, calling him “a total loser.”
Republican congressman Thomas Massie thinks there is "a high probability that Pete Hegseth won't make it until December 31st of this year."
How a Pete Hegseth impeachment could play out
The House is now on a collision course with an impeachment vote for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
So how might that play out? And what are the political pluses and minuses for both sides?
On the Democratic side: The gambit makes sense as an opportunity to respond to voters’ concerns and try to change course in the Iran war. It also puts Republicans who have been openly critical of Hegseth on the spot.
But the gambit is also risky, as all impeachments are, in part because it’s being led by a Republican, outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie, whose priorities don’t totally overlap with Democrats’.
On the GOP side: There is no question that impeachment is a headache that could divide the party at an inopportune time.
But it could also help Republicans focus on a scapegoat rather than the president who is actually most responsible for the war — and for the other things Massie wants to impeach Hegseth over.
Read more analysis of the battle ahead here.
