Hegseth impeachment vote looms as House Republicans privately warn it could pass

The House of Representatives is barreling toward a vote on impeaching Secretary of War Pete Hegseth this week, and several GOP lawmakers think it could very well pass.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., is triggering a vote on impeaching Hegseth by introducing a privileged resolution on Monday, a mechanism for forcing consideration of bills that House majority leaders otherwise would have ignored. A privileged resolution must be considered within two legislative days, putting the vote on Wednesday at the latest.

Massie read his resolution on the House floor on Monday, as is custom, which took over an hour.

It comes as fallout from the war in Iran, including high gas prices, is blamed as a key factor in Republicans’ significant losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

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Massie told Fox News Digital last week that he would trigger the vote when Congress returned after the midterms if Hegseth did not first resign.

Hegseth, for his part, called the impeachment effort against him a “shame” that “won’t work” in a video posted to X on Friday.

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But several House Republicans told Fox News Digital on Thursday that they believed Hegseth could very well be impeached. Sources said a combination of absences of Republican members who lost their elections and negative sentiment toward Hegseth’s conduct could be enough to tip it over the edge.

The majority of Republicans are still expected to oppose the move, however.

Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, a critic of the war, said he was not in favor of impeaching Hegseth.

“I think it’s an effort to scapegoat Pete Hegseth for Congress shirking their own duty and, frankly, the president taking action that, in my view, is unconstitutional — but it’s also not unprecedented,” Davidson told Fox News Digital.

“What would be unprecedented is to hold the Secretary of Defense accountable for a decision the president makes. Or frankly, it would have been unprecedented for the Secretary of Defense to kind of break ranks on something that is clearly not unprecedented in terms of what has become the standard operating procedure for administrations going back to the Korean War.”

Massie’s impeachment resolution includes eight articles having to do with the war in Iran, striking suspected drug boats in the Caribbean, U.S. strikes against Yemen, and the extradition of now-former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

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Notably, another impeachment article accuses Hegseth of suppressing free speech by retaliating against Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., over a video in which Kelly urged troops to resist “unlawful orders.”

A privileged resolution notably carries two steps. Before a vote on the measure itself, leaders can call up a vote to “table” the bill or refer it to the relevant committee, which in both instances effectively kills it.

The last Cabinet secretary to be impeached was Biden administration Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whom Republicans accused of a dereliction of duty at the U.S.-Mexico border. It was quickly scuttled without a trial in the last Democrat-controlled Senate.

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It’s not immediately clear how House GOP leaders plan to deal with Massie’s resolution.