Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is getting out of an impeachment vote thanks to Mike Johnson. Allison Robbert/ZUMA
Speaker Mike Johnson announced Wednesday that he would send Congress home early for its seven-week campaigning recess ahead of November’s midterm elections. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth—who was scheduled for an impeachment vote brought by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on the basis of his conduct during the Iran war—has been marked safe, for now.
House Republicans had planned to remain in session until Thursday. Now, they’re taking their final votes of the session Wednesday night, after which they’ll head home to face voters.
Massie, who introduced Hegseth’s articles of impeachment, said the early dismissal reflected GOP leaders’ fear that Hegseth might actually be impeached.
Among the “high crimes and misdemeanors” listed in Massie’s 34-page resolution are assertions that Hegseth knowingly violated the War Powers Resolution, that he “knowingly executed and implemented unlawful orders to initiate war against a foreign nation notwithstanding the absence of congressional authorization,” and that he “acted in a manner contrary to his trust as Secretary of Defense and subversive of constitutional government.”
Massie, a libertarian, found himself supported by lawmakers across the aisle. Hegseth, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) wrote on social media, “has presided over the slaughter of thousands of civilians in immoral wars, aided and abetted genocide, and led a campaign of extrajudicial assassinations.”
Mike Johnson, however, didn’t want to hear it. The articles of impeachment, he said, are “a publicity stunt by someone who wants attention. It will immediately be tabled, of course….We should not be playing games with national security.”
Though Massie asserted on social media that the impeachment vote was the reason he’s being sent home early, Johnson didn’t say so directly. Instead, he told reporters, “It’s time for our members to go home to their districts and make the case to the American people.”
Hegseth, between announcing and rescinding military testosterone-supplementation guidelines, doesn’t seem to have found time to speak on the matter of his potential impeachment.
In a statement, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said the “entire Department is unified behind the Secretary’s vision and will continue working to put our warfighters and America first.”
