Republicans shield Hegseth from impeachment after Trump, Vance circle wagons

Washington: Republicans have saved Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth from an impeachment vote in the US Congress, using their numbers in the House of Representatives to refer the matter to a committee, effectively killing it off.

The vote on Tuesday evening (US time) was 211 to 204 in favour of a referral to the House Judiciary Committee. Thomas Massie, the outgoing Republican congressman who started the proceedings, was the only Republican to support an immediate vote on impeachment.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth labelled the impeachment proceedings a “farce” and an act of sabotage.AP Photo/Nathan HowardBut 11 Democrats, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, missed the vote. If they had attended and voted with their colleagues, Hegseth would have faced the full impeachment resolution.

It means Hegseth will avoid impeachment for now – at least until the Democrats gain control of both chambers of Congress early next year, following their dramatic victories at last week’s midterm elections.

Some Democrats were seething following the failed impeachment attempt. “I don’t know why people weren’t here,” New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters on the steps of Congress.

“Someone may have a health issue, I don’t know. But obviously, [losing] a vote like that, on attendance, is hard. That hurts.”

The vote was a significant victory for Republicans who control Congress for another two months.AP Photo/Julia Demaree NikhinsonSydney Kamlager-Dove, a Democrat from California, said everyone knew the vote was coming. “People should have gotten their raggedy selves up these steps to vote. There is no reason why we should have lost this vote because of attendance issues.”

One Democrat who missed the vote, Melanie Stansbury, said she and others were blocked from entering the Capitol “due to a traffic incident and a police escort of a bus during the vote”.

But the failure to wrangle the necessary Democratic votes also heaps pressure on leader Hakeem Jeffries, who will become Speaker of the House early next year.

President Donald Trump celebrated what he called “the EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot”. The Democrats “continue to weaponise and abuse the United States of America”, he added, even though the resolution was brought by a Republican.

An official Pentagon account posted an AI image of Massie crying, while Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the “baseless impeachment articles” had collapsed under the weight of Hegseth’s record of achievements.

“The American people see through it,” Parnell said. “We will not indulge the political theatre driven by a disgruntled soon-to-be-former congressman and others who have chosen grandstanding over governing.”

Earlier, at a feisty morning news conference, Hegseth slammed the proceedings against him as a politically motivated stunt, as he drew comparisons between himself and Donald Trump.

He insisted all his actions in office had been legal, while framing the impeachment as an attack on American troops the day before Veterans Day.

“What one disgruntled and defeated congressman is attempting is not oversight, and it’s not accountability. It’s a political spectacle,” he said. “A personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment. It’s a farce, and it’s a stunt, and everybody knows it.”

Massie, who is from Kentucky, will leave Congress at the end of this year after losing his primary to a Trump-backed challenger. He has opposed the president on multiple issues, including initiating the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

His eight articles of impeachment, filed on Monday, accused Hegseth of unlawfully keeping US troops engaged in the Iran war in contravention of a congressional resolution, ignoring laws that aim to reduce civilian casualties, abducting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, overseeing the extrajudicial killing of suspected drug traffickers, suppressing free speech and initiating an illegal war in Yemen.

“The law requires our military to withdraw from hostilities within 60 days if Congress does not authorise the activity,” Massie said earlier in the day. “Operation Epic Fury has been under way for 256 days. Congress has not authorised it. Hegseth is breaking the law. Not even debatable.”

Outgoing Republican congressman Thomas Massie, who brought the impeachment resolution against Pete Hegseth.AP Photo/Allison RobbertBefore last week’s midterm elections, there was speculation that Hegseth – a former Fox News anchor with no government experience before being appointed defence secretary – would be ousted from cabinet as part of a post-election reshuffle.

But as the administration prepares for two years of fights with Democrats in Congress, Trump strongly backed his appointee and Republicans - some of whom have reservations about Hegseth - toed the line on Tuesday.

Hegseth compared himself directly with Trump, who was impeached in the House twice during his first term. This impeachment attempt was a “show trial” against the both of them, Hegseth said.

“We’ve seen this show before. They impeached President Trump over a perfect phone call ... If standing with President Trump puts me in that company, I’ll take that company every day of the week.”

Pete Hegseth vigorously defended his actions and their legality at a press conference at the Pentagon on Tuesday.AP Photo/Nathan HowardHegseth queried why his predecessor Lloyd Austin, a Democrat under Joe Biden, was not impeached over the botched US withdrawal from Afghanistan, or for allowing a Chinese spy balloon to fly over the country for a week.

And he said the impeachment attempt sent a signal to America’s adversaries that the US would punish its own soldiers and civilian military leaders for executing lawful orders.

“It tells them that a single rogue legislator loaded with personal animus for the president can attempt to veto national security decisions made by the duly elected commander-in-chief,” Hegseth told reporters. “This is not patriotism, this is sabotage.”

Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance joined Trump in coming to Hegseth’s aid, despite his criticism of the Iran war, for which he blamed the Republicans’ midterm election losses.

US Vice President JD Vance, an opponent of the war in Iran, said the impeachment proceeding was baseless.BloombergVance said it was obvious the defence secretary had not committed impeachable offences. “Like so much of Congress, impeachment has become a ridiculous show that stands in for actual policymaking,” he said on X.

“The irony is that legislators are most angry at Pete on the issues where he’s most correct: repositioning forces away from Europe/Ukraine and reorganising the general officer corps. This isn’t about Iran; this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon.”

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