Massie Moves to Force Impeachment Vote Against Hegseth, Citing Civilian Deaths

By Sharon Zhang

This article was originally published by Truthout

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) has moved to force an impeachment vote against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, introducing eight articles on the House floor accusing Hegseth of high crimes and misdemeanors on Tuesday.

Massie’s measure is privileged, meaning that the House will be forced to vote on it by Thursday. With Republicans in charge of the House, the articles are unlikely to pass — but it will get lawmakers on the record on Hegseth and the administration’s vastly unpopular, multi-front conflicts.

The articles cite the “illegal war” on Iran; the U.S.’s military campaigns in Venezuela, Yemen, and its boat strike campaign; Hegseth’s apathy toward avoiding civilian harm; and his efforts to suppress the speech of his critics. 

“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,” said Massie in a statement. “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.”

The measure is the most expansive effort yet by any lawmaker to impeach Hegseth. A previous effort by Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Arizona) also cited the Iran war, but was not introduced in a privileged manner and thus did not get a vote in the GOP-controlled House.

On Iran, Massie accuses Hegseth of violating three provisions within the War Powers Resolution of 1973 by waging the war without the approval of Congress at three different points: at its inception, after the administration blew through a key 60-day deadline without congressional approval, and after Congress passed a resolution directing the U.S. to withdraw troops in June.

Massie specifically calls out the U.S.’s strike on an elementary school in Minab, Iran, citing it as an example of Hegseth “ignoring laws that minimize civilian casualties.” That strike killed 168 people, most of them young school children, in one of the single most deadly attacks on civilians in recent U.S. history.

“Secretary Hegseth also cultivated a war-making culture at the Department of Defense which he boasts as being dismissive of ‘stupid rules of engagement’ with preference for ‘maximum lethality, not tepid legality,’” the impeachment article says. “By directing the Department of Defense in a manner that foreseeably dismantled the safeguards necessary to distinguish civilian objects from military objectives, Secretary Hegseth thereby effected the murder of civilians.”

One article each is dedicated to the U.S.’s “extrajudicial killings” in the boat strike campaign in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean; the “kidnapping” of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro; and the “unlawful” war on Yemen. On Yemen, Massie cites messages from the leaked Signal chat to demonstrate that the military struck Yemen without any immediate threat to the U.S., in an operation that killed over 200 civilians. 

Finally, another article charges Hegseth with using his authority to target Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) over his reminder to U.S. troops of their right to disobey illegal orders. Massie argues that Hegseth, in targeting Kelly, also put at risk the speech of “millions of other retired service members” and a fifth of Congress — which “would constitute one of the most extraordinary expansions of Executive Branch power in the history of the United States” if successful.

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