House Votes 211-204 to Send Hegseth Impeachment Articles to Committee, Ending Massie's Effort for Now

Hegseth rejected all of it. He called the effort a farce and a political spectacle and said none of the allegations amounts to high crimes or misdemeanours, framing them as policy disagreements. President Trump said the attempt had failed and backed Hegseth throughout.

Why did the vote go this way?

Massie filed the resolution as privileged, so Republican leaders had to act within two legislative days. They chose referral over a direct vote on the articles. NBC News reported that even some of the administration's Republican critics did not think the conduct met the constitutional standard. Don Bacon of Nebraska said his objection was mostly to how Massie handled it, and Darrell Issa of California suggested Massie was motivated by anger over his primary loss. Issa also predicted the effort would die in the Senate, which would need 67 votes to convict.

Massie told reporters he was not surprised but was disappointed, CBS reported. He said he would not bring another impeachment resolution against Hegseth, and that he will instead force a vote on a war powers resolution and ask whether Republicans who blamed the war for last week's election losses will support it.

What happens next for Hegseth?

Hegseth stays in office, and the Republican majority that sent the articles to committee holds only until the new Congress sits in January. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who NBC says is expected to become speaker then, has said Democrats will run Hegseth out of town once they take over, and CBS reports he said the vote was not the end of the matter. The first test is likely to be Massie's war powers resolution, which would put the same Republicans on record on the Iran war without the word impeachment attached.