The House of Representatives referred a measure to impeach U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to committee on Tuesday, effectively blocking the effort to remove the Trump cabinet official.
The motion carried on a mostly party-line vote 211-204.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who introduced the articles of impeachment against Hegseth, was the only Republican to vote against it. Democrats uniformly voted against the motion.
The vote was an early test of whether Republicans might seek to break with U.S. President Donald Trump over the Iran war after the crushing midterm defeat that the GOP suffered in the midterm elections last week.
The eight articles of impeachment that Massie laid against Hegseth accused the secretary of defense of waging an illegal war against Iran, among other “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Hegseth was defiant about his potential impeachment during his first news conference in months earlier on Tuesday.
“It’s not oversight and it’s not accountability,” he said. “It’s a political spectacle. A personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment.”
