Hegseth accused of crimes, misconduct in impeachment effort

Roxana Tiron, Erik Wasson and Courtney McBride, Bloomberg News on Nov 9, 2026

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WASHINGTON — Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced a measure to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, roughly one week after the unpopular Iran war the Pentagon chief championed fueled a midterm defeat for President Donald Trump’s Republican Party.

Massie launched his new bid to oust Hegseth on Monday as the House of Representatives resumed work following the midterm elections. He posted his resolution outlining charges against Trump’s defense secretary on social media earlier in the day, and introducing the measure Monday sets up a floor vote on the motion as soon as Wednesday.

“I’ve seen some of my colleagues say @SecWar Hegseth has been effective and they agree with the war, so they’ll vote not to impeach,” Massie, R-Ky., wrote in a social media post Monday morning. “That’s not the question though. The question is whether he committed impeachable acts, and the answer is yes, eight times.”

Massie, who is retiring at the end of the year, is accusing Hegseth of waging the Iran war without congressional authorization, committing extrajudicial killings through strikes on alleged drug boats, ignoring laws designed to minimize civilian casualties including with a strike on an Iranian school, and unlawfully kidnapping a foreign leader — Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.

Hegseth has been the Trump administration’s most prominent and enthusiastic cheerleader for the unpopular conflict in Iran, which spiked energy prices, fueled global inflation and eventually doomed Republicans in the midterm vote on Nov. 3.

Massie’s resolution is similar to his previous impeachment effort, which was thwarted ahead of the midterm election when House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed lawmakers just one day after it was introduced.

Speaking Monday, Johnson called Massie’s effort a “cheap trick,” adding that “it would be a terrible thing for our allies and enemies to see that.”

The motion, which comes before the Democrats take over the House and Senate in January, may pass the House but is unlikely to make it through the still Republican-controlled Senate.

Last week, Hegseth posted a six-minute video on X defending his tenure, calling Massie a “disgruntled, defeated congressman” who has filed “sham articles of impeachment against yours truly.”

Hegseth’s tenure has been marked by numerous controversies, most notably the Iran war and the legally questionable strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. He’s also been criticized for pushing out high-ranking officers, rhetorical attacks on “woke” diversity initiatives and transgender troops, and the rapid depletion of key munitions as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.

He’s also irritated key members of Congress with his lack of transparency to them and the U.S. public about the progress of the war, its cost and its casualties.