Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY-4), formerly a Republican but now a member of the controlled opposition, has filed article of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
Massie, who was defeated in the 2026 primary, introduced the articles of impeachment against Hegseth in the House on Nov. 9, accusing the Secretary of War of committing “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
The House subsequently voted 211–204 against advancing the impeachment resolution. Following the vote, the impeachment resolution was referred to committee.
Massie’s lowbrow political theater has backfired spectacularly as legal scholars, national security experts and have come out en mass to knockdown the allegations in the article of impeachment and to call out Massie for wasting the time Republicans have left in the majority with his buffoonery.
The Washington Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York: “Reading through Thomas Massie’s articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth. There are 8 articles. Articles 1, 2, and 3 all accuse Hegseth of violating the War Powers Resolution by waging war in Iran. You might ask yourself: Did Pete Hegseth order US forces into action in Iran? I thought President Trump did that. That’s a good question; from the very beginning, Hegseth appears to serve as a stand-in for Massie’s real desire, which is to impeach Trump… Massie is clearly pushing these articles because he is racing the clock against his own departure from Congress on January 3, having been defeated in a Republican primary in his home state of Kentucky. There is only so much time left to do damage, and with this BS impeachment, Massie is trying to make the most of it.”
Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson: “The impeachment effort is a political gambit for attention… The idea that you would impeach the Secretary of War at a time of international conflict sends a terrible message to our enemies and our allies, and we’re not going to play that game… It’s just purely for people to get attention, and it’s shameful.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno: “The idea that a failed Congressman wants to make a political point just because he’s bitter about a defeat is gross.”
Rep. Randy Fine: “I trusted Pete Hegseth with my oldest son this summer when he joined the @USNavy. I don’t regret that decision one bit. Thomas Massie’s almost illiterate motion is a fitting disgrace for a petulant loser. Or what I’d expect from someone with the mental capacity of a pinecone. I stand with @SecWar.
Former Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates: “It’s political theater at its worst because the subject is deadly serious. These are our warfighters and they’re being used as pawns. Unfortunately, I think this is a preview of what we’re going to see out of the next Democrat Congress. Congressman Massie should be ashamed of himself for trying to take advantage of these last couple of weeks for this kind of performance.”
Article III Project Founder and President Mike Davis: “This Hegseth impeachment is garbage. Congress declares war. The president makes war. He can repel sudden attack. He can protect American troops, assets, and allies. He does not need a declaration of war. Where were Massie’s articles of impeachment against Lloyd Austin after Afghanistan? They won’t go after Trump. So they go after Pete. Pete Hegseth is a bold and fearless warrior for the Constitution. He is highly effective. He is doing his job. Call your House Rep. Oppose this bogus impeachment.”
Secretary Hegseth has come out swinging and made clear that every operation targeted in the eight articles was lawful, ordered by the Commander-in-Chief, properly notified to Congress, and carried out by warriors who delivered decisive results. He also made clear that this is not oversight; it is a political spectacle aimed at President Donald J. Trump and the men and women who defend our country.
- “What one disgruntled and defeated Congressman is attempting is not oversight and it’s not accountability. It’s a political spectacle — a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment, timed for one man’s final days in Congress to try to do damage to this President, this country, and most irresponsibly, the Warriors who defend it. It’s a farce and it’s a stunt, and everybody knows it.” (Watch)
- “In the 250 years of our American Republic, no Secretary of War or Secretary of Defense has ever been impeached for carrying out lawful military operations — and in our case, successful ones at that — not once, War Powers resolution or not. Not under Reagan in Lebanon; not under Clinton in Kosovo; not under Obama in Iraq and Syria; not under Biden in Iraq and Syria. That’s the standard… And one disgruntled Congressman wants to shred it over policy disagreements.” (Watch)
- “That’s what it is: policy disagreements — not high crimes, not misdemeanors, not treason, not bribery, not the kinds of offenses the founders intended when they wrote the impeachment clause. The proper remedy for a policy disagreement? It’s legislation. It’s debate. It’s the next Presidential election. It’s not handing the House and Senate floor to the Democrats so that they can run a show trial against the President and the Secretary of War while Republicans still control Congress and should be delivering wins for the American people.” (Watch)
- “As for the articles themselves — Iran, the cartels, Maduro, Yemen — every one was a lawful operation ordered by the Commander-in-Chief, then ordered by myself, notified to Congress, and executed by American warriors who did their jobs.” (Watch)
- “This is not about me. Politicians in Washington have accused the sailors and the pilots who struck narcoterrorist boats of war crimes for doing their job. Senators, in cute videos, have suggested the same. This resolution is the next step: put the Secretary on trial today and the men and women who carried out those orders tomorrow. If they want to come for the warriors, they’re going to have to come through me.” (Watch)
- “We’ve seen this show before. They impeached President Trump over a perfect phone call; they impeached him again in his final week in office. Both times they failed, both times he came back stronger, and the American people sent him back to the White House. Now, they’re trying a third time — this time against a member of his Cabinet. They will fail again.” (Watch)
- “Let’s be clear about what this resolution actually does. It tells our enemies — Iran, the cartels, every adversary watching — that the United States will actually punish its own warriors and its own civilian leadership for successfully executing lawful military operations… It puts a target on the backs of American warriors by signaling that Congress will undermine their missions in real time. This is not patriotism; this is sabotage.” (Watch)
- “In Operation Epic Fury, by every measure, we achieved a historic military victory… We control the Strait of Hormuz. Crazy Islamists in Tehran will never, ever have a nuclear weapon. A historic effort, only made possible by a courageous Commander-in-Chief.” (Watch)
- “From Day One, President Trump made homeland security national security. We sent American troops to lock down the southwest border and choked off the cartel pipeline of human smuggling, of drugs, and death. Then, we took the fight to them… Thousands of American lives saved with every drug boat sunk and every shipment prevented.” (Watch)
- “President Trump gave this Department what it has not had in a generation: a Commander-in-Chief with the courage to lead and the resolve to win. I stand behind every one of these operations. I was proud to execute them — and I would do it again tomorrow.” (Watch)
- “We will not apologize for putting American lives first. We will not apologize for stopping the flow of drugs that kill our citizens. We will not apologize for destroying the capabilities of a regime that chants ‘death to America.’” (Watch)
Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz: “I would be honored to help defend him because these are not impeachable offenses… None of the grounds that are in the Massie allegations come even close to meeting that standard.”
Attorney Mehek Cooke: “As an attorney my advice to @RepThomasMassie: @SecWar isn’t going anywhere. YOU are. SCOTUS rejected Congress bypassing the President to issue binding orders. You can’t impeach Hegseth for defying an order Congress lacked power to issue. Your articles lack legal foundation.”
Article III Project Senior Counsel Will Chamberlain: “Everything about this Hegseth impeachment is like a perfect microcosm of @RepThomasMassie’s passive-aggressiveness, cowardice, resentment, and envy.
- He’s trying to get Hegseth impeached instead of Trump, who he’s still too cowardly to go after personally.
- He’s going after Hegseth because Hegseth endorsed against him in his primary.
- He’s using legal arguments he knows are frivolous. Thomas Massie has been in the House for well over a decade, he knows concurrent resolutions are non-binding, but he’s saying that failing to defy his commander-in-chief and adhere to a non-binding Congressional resolution is an impeachable offense.
- And to top it all off, he’s saying ‘this is all for Hegseth’s own good’ with a smug insinuation that the evidence Massie does not possess will doom him.
- This, from the guy who talked about ‘how much work he and Trump still had to do together’ during his primary, and who published an out-of-date Trump endorsement when Trump had endorsed his opponent.
Thomas Massie is a weak, pathetic excuse for a man.”
