The United States House of Representatives has voted 211–204 to derail an effort to impeach Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, handing the embattled Pentagon chief a significant victory even as serious questions continue to hang over his political future.
The vote, held on Tuesday, 10 November, sent the eight articles of impeachment to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, a procedural move that effectively kills the measure for the remainder of the current Congress. Only one Republican, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky — the congressman who introduced the articles — voted against the referral and in favour of keeping the impeachment effort alive.
Massie was joined by 203 Democrats in opposing the motion. The narrow margin came down in part to absences: 11 Democrats and seven Republicans did not vote. Had eight of the absent Democrats shown up, the procedural measure would have been defeated and a full House vote on impeachment would have followed.
The articles accused Hegseth of high crimes and misdemeanours, principally for waging war against Iran for more than 90 days without congressional authorisation. They also covered US military operations in Yemen, strikes on suspected drug-carrying boats in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January.
Hours before the vote, Hegseth gave a defiant and highly politicised defence of his record in his first news conference at the Pentagon in six months, portraying Massie as a rogue lawmaker and arguing that he had committed none of the high crimes the Constitution requires for removal. President Donald Trump, who has stood by his defence secretary, wrote on Truth Social after the vote that the Democrats’ attempt to impeach Hegseth had “miserably FAILED”.
The defeat was also a significant setback for House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who had stood firmly behind the impeachment push and is expected to become speaker when Democrats take control of the House in January after their victories in the November 2026 midterm elections. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer had likewise endorsed the effort.
Among the Democrats who missed the vote was former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who had returned to San Francisco for an annual event honouring veterans. A spokesperson said she would have voted against the referral had she been present.
Because the articles have now been sent to a committee controlled by Trump allies, they are expected simply never to be scheduled for a hearing before the current two-year Congress ends on 3 January. The articles will then formally expire, and Democrats would need to produce a new version if they want to launch their own impeachment effort in the new year.
Jeffries has already promised to follow through on Hegseth’s impeachment once his party takes charge, and the issue is likely to return quickly in January. Democrats have also pointed to the midterm results — which some in the party have blamed on the war in Iran and the resulting surge in petrol prices — as evidence that the public wants accountability over the conflict.
Massie filed the resolution on Monday, 9 November, as lawmakers returned to Washington, and because he filed it as a “privileged” motion, Republican leaders were forced to call a vote within two legislative days. He has argued that Hegseth “has violated the norms of war, and it is to the disadvantage and the dishonour of our country, and to the danger of our soldiers in future conflicts”.
For now, Hegseth remains in post, shielded by a Republican majority that — with a single exception — closed ranks around him. But with Democrats set to control both chambers of Congress in January, the reprieve may prove short-lived, and the defence secretary’s conduct in office is set to remain one of the most contested questions in American politics.
The vote also underlined how the war in Iran has reshaped Washington’s politics. What began as a foreign policy crisis has become a domestic one, dividing Republicans, energising Democrats, and leaving the Pentagon chief’s future dependent on a Congress that is about to change hands.
