US Republicans block effort to impeach Pete Hegseth

Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday blocked an effort to impeach Pete Hegseth, rejecting allegations that the defence secretary had repeatedly violated the constitution through his handling of the Iran war and other conflicts globally.

The vote came a week after Republicans lost control of the Senate and the House in their worst midterm election in more than a half century, and underscored how politicians remain wary of crossing US president Donald Trump, who has signalled his continued support for Hegseth.

Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman who lost his primary after breaking with the president, had proposed impeaching Hegseth in September, alleging an array of illegal acts, including killing civilians in Iran, launching unauthorised operations in Venezuela and Yemen and retaliating against a Democratic senator.

Top Democrats announced their support for the resolution, but Republicans moved to kill it by referring it to the judiciary committee. Their motion succeeded on Tuesday, by a 211-204 vote, largely along party lines. Massie was the sole Republican to oppose the motion, along with all Democrats.

The resolution’s downfall took place hours after Hegseth held a defiant press conference at the Pentagon, where he dismissed the impeachment effort as a “political spectacle” orchestrated by the ousted Kentucky congressman.

“It’s a farce, and it’s a stunt, and everybody knows it,” Hegseth said.

The conflict with Iran has proven divisive with Republicans, and in advance of the midterms, small but growing numbers voted with Democrats on war powers resolutions intended to force Trump to bring the hostilities to a close. Warren Davidson, one of the House Republicans who voted for such resolutions, said he nonetheless rejected the idea of impeaching Hegseth.

“It’s an effort to blame-shift on to Hegseth Congress’s failure and president Trump’s decision,” Davidson said in an interview.

“I think Hegseth has been incredibly effective at restoring morale for the active-duty force, restoring the warrior ethos, the proper focus to the military that they exist to fight and win wars.”

[ Hegseth solders himself to Trump in face of impeachment ‘circus’Opens in new window ]

The defence secretary, a former Fox News host and army national guard officer, has been one of the most pugnacious members of Trump’s second term cabinet, and taken an unusually heavy handed approach to managing the US military.

Hegseth has orchestrated the departure of top generals, blocked the promotions of scores of officers, many of them women and people of colour, and implemented new rules that prompted much of the press corps to leave the Pentagon.

He has also become the public face of some of the administration’s most politically costly policies, particularly the Iran war, which has dragged on for months while putting upward pressure on petroleum prices and played into Democrats’s hands in last week’s midterms.

Massie’s resolution outlined eight alleged violations of the constitution by Hegseth, including attacking Iran without first seeking Congress’s permission, and spurning a war powers resolution the House and Senate approved in June that would require an end to the conflict.

It also accused Hegseth of “ignoring” laws that would have minimised civilian casualties, and specifically cites a US strike on a school in Minab, Iran, that killed more than 168 people.

Other articles allege Hegseth violated the constitution with the “extrajudicial killings” of at least 221 people on boats suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean and of “suppressing free speech” through his retaliation against the Democratic senator Mark Kelly for his criticism of the secretary.

The final two impeachment articles target Hegseth’s involvement in the military operation that captured Venezuela’s then president, Nicolás Maduro, and a bombing campaign in Yemen that began shortly after Trump returned to the White House.

Had the impeachment resolution passed, it would have had to be approved by the Senate, which Republicans control by a 53-seat margin. It is unclear if it would have had enough votes to pass, or if the Republican leader John Thune would have even put it up for consideration. – The Guardian