Hegseth Impeachment Vote Fails 211-204 as House Sends Articles to Committee

Update, Nov. 10, 2026, 7:35 p.m. ET: The impeachment push is over for now. The House voted 211-204 on Tuesday evening to send Massie's resolution to the Judiciary Committee, a move that effectively kills it, NBC News reported. Massie was the only Republican to vote with Democrats to keep it alive, and even some GOP critics of Hegseth said his conduct didn't rise to "high crimes and misdemeanors," according to NBC. It also means the eight articles themselves won't get a vote, which could otherwise have come Wednesday, Fox News reported.

Hegseth opened the day with a Pentagon news conference calling the effort "a farce" and "a stunt." After the vote, President Trump posted on Truth Social that the attempt had "miserably FAILED," called it the "EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot" and called Massie a "major LOSER," Fox News reported. Jeffries, on track to become speaker in January, has said Democrats will "run Pete Hegseth out of town" once they hold the majority, so a new attempt next year is possible. Our earlier reporting follows.

Update, Nov. 9, 2026, 3:36 p.m. ET: Massie filed the resolution Monday as soon as the House opened for its first session since the midterms, the Associated Press reported, and spent more than an hour reading the eight articles on the floor, according to Fox News. Because it's privileged, House leaders must act within two legislative days, which puts a vote on Wednesday at the latest. They can vote on the articles, or first try to table the resolution or send it to committee; MS NOW reported it wasn't clear Monday which route leadership would take. Hegseth told reporters the effort is politically motivated "noise," Axios reported. This is a developing story. Our earlier report follows.

The push to impeach Pete Hegseth got the endorsement it needed on Sunday. Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader and the likely next speaker, told ABC's This Week he is "a hard yes" on the resolution. By Sunday evening it was the lead item in NBC News' weekend rundown, and a vote now looks likely this week.

What Jeffries said

Jeffries accused the defense secretary of abusing his power, undermining national security and engineering what he called a "reckless and costly war of choice in Iran" that has raised prices for Americans. "Pete Hegseth has got to go," he said, according to the Guardian's account of the interview.

He stopped short of promising every Democratic vote. The caucus will talk it through Tuesday morning, when lawmakers return to Washington for the first time since the Nov. 3 midterms, but he predicted "incredibly strong support."

Who is forcing the vote

The resolution belongs to Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Republican and frequent Trump critic who lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger and leaves Congress in January. He read a draft on the House floor in September and told Roll Call in October that it would be a "week one" item when the lame-duck session opened. He now says he will reintroduce it as soon as Monday.

Massie is filing it as a question of the privileges of the House. If the parliamentarian agrees it qualifies, the speaker has up to two legislative days to schedule it, and the House can either vote on it directly or vote on a motion to table, which would set it aside.

Timing is the story here. Before Election Day, Speaker Mike Johnson canceled votes and sent members home early, avoiding the measure. Axios reported that GOP leaders now expect enough defections for it to pass, since Republicans who lost last week have little left to lose. Johnson has denied the early recess had anything to do with impeachment.

What the eight articles of impeachment say

Massie's draft lists eight articles:

1. Articles I to III: waging war on Iran in violation of three separate sections of the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the law that limits how long a president can keep troops in combat without Congress.
2. Article IV: ignoring laws meant to minimize civilian casualties.
3. Article V: extrajudicial killings. Roll Call's summary says the draft calls military campaigns in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific illegal, the waters where U.S. forces have struck alleged drug-trafficking boats.
4. Article VI: suppressing the free speech of a U.S. senator.
5. Article VII: kidnapping a sovereign foreign leader. Venezuela is among the campaigns the draft calls illegal, and Massie has accused Hegseth of abusing his office "to kidnap foreign leaders."
6. Article VIII: an unlawful war in Yemen.

Massie has said the text will be "substantially the same" when it is reintroduced. He also posted that there is one situation in which he won't bring it back: if Hegseth resigns.

How Hegseth and the White House are responding

Hegseth answered in a video posted Thursday, calling the resolution "sham articles" from "a disgruntled, defeated congressman" and his Democratic allies. The Pentagon told BBC News that it had followed the law and that Hegseth would not be deterred by "phony investigations."

President Trump has stood by him. Asked Wednesday whether he was thinking about replacing Hegseth, Trump said, "No, I think he's doing a very good job."

Where Republicans stand

The swing votes are Republicans, and several are hedging in public. Rep. French Hill of Arkansas told CBS's Face the Nation he wants to hear the debate first. He separated poor job performance from impeachable conduct, saying that if Hegseth isn't doing the job well, "the president ought to make a change there," according to CBS News. Retiring Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told Axios he is undecided.

The backdrop is last week's election. Both Trump and voters pointed to the Iran war as a major reason Republicans lost, and some of the sharpest criticism of Hegseth is now coming from his own side. One Republican close to the White House told CNN that Hegseth had been "either dishonest or incorrect" about the war's timelines and goals.

Could Hegseth actually be removed?

Impeachment and removal are two different votes. The House needs only a simple majority to impeach. The Senate then holds a trial, and conviction takes two-thirds of the senators present.

That second step is the hard one. Democrats will control both chambers in January, with the BBC counting at least 254 House seats for them, but a two-thirds Senate vote would still need a large bloc of Republicans.

History points the same way. Only two cabinet secretaries have ever been impeached. War Secretary William Belknap was impeached in 1876 after he resigned, and the Senate acquitted him. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was impeached in February 2024, and the Senate dismissed the articles without a trial two months later.

What to watch this week

Watch for Massie's formal notice on the floor, which starts the two-day clock, and for whether Johnson tries to table the resolution. A tabling vote would be the first real count of how many Republicans are willing to break with Trump on Hegseth. House Democrats have also promised wider investigations next year, covering his handling of the Iran war, his firings of senior officers and the boat strikes, so the scrutiny won't end with this vote either way.