The United States House of Representatives voted 211 to 204 to block an effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The resolution, introduced by Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY), included multiple articles of impeachment accusing Hegseth of violating the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973 through unauthorized military operations, including those involving Iran and Yemen.
Rather than holding a direct vote on the impeachment charges, House Republicans passed a procedural motion to refer the resolution to the Judiciary Committee, effectively shelving the effort.
Massie was the only Republican to oppose referring the resolution to the Republican-led committee on Tuesday. More than a dozen lawmakers, including 11 Democrats, missed the vote.
The impeachment bid was widely viewed as unlikely to succeed, as it would have required several Republicans to break with President Donald Trump.
Massie had acknowledged that his effort might not succeed immediately but argued it could pressure Trump to replace Hegseth before Democrats pursue their own impeachment process.
The Kentucky congressman also maintained that removing Hegseth while Republicans still controlled the Senate would give lawmakers time to approve a replacement.
Although impeachment resolutions can carry over into a new congressional term, the measure’s referral to committee leaves little time for action before Democrats assume control of Congress in January.
In his first Pentagon news briefing in six months, Hegseth dismissed the impeachment effort as a “farce” and “sabotage”.
President Trump celebrated the House vote in a post on Truth Social, declaring that the effort had “miserably FAILED” and describing the outcome as a total “exoneration” of Hegseth.
Meanwhile, Pentagon officials hailed the vote as a victory, while Democratic lawmakers and critics signaled that the accountability debate surrounding Hegseth’s leadership was far from over.
