Hegseth Survives Pre-Emptive Strike

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (who styles himself the “Secretary of War”) survived an attempt at impeachment in the House on Tuesday evening, although there’s every reason to suspect the reprieve may be temporary. House GOP leaders smothered the attempt, which was led by sole Republican defector Rep. Thomas Massie and backed by all Democrats present, with a 211-204 vote to refer the matter to the House Judiciary Committee. Deflecting a full vote by referring it to a committee is a time-honored tactic to stall or kill legislative proposals. Massie had cited not just the “illegal war in Iran” in his impeachment drive but an impressive number of Hegseth’s misdeeds: extrajudicial killings of at least 221 people on boats Hegseth claimed were carrying drugs, ignoring congressional war powers resolutions, causing massive civilian casualties, kidnapping foreign leaders (such as then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro), and attempting to intimidate critics, including via a failed effort to demote Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) in his military retirement and slash his pension. (In related news: On Tuesday, and for no apparent reason, Pentagon officials reportedly threatened reporters with physical removal if they “get out of line.” They then refused to clarify what they meant, other than maintaining “decorum” in Hegseth’s presence.) Not present on Massie’s list was Hegseth’s announcement last month that he would publicly livestream the military execution of former Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who murdered 13 unarmed people and wounded 32 others in a 2009 terror attack on Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas. While other Trump-appointed officials like Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr acted paralyzed at the time, Hegseth’s plan triggered a brief, rare moment of something resembling bipartisan outrage, and Trump eventually shut the idea down before the probably unconstitutional stunt had a chance to move forward. The removal of the secretary would have massive ramifications for everything from the ongoing conflict in Iran to military contracting processes and U.S. cyber defenses. Any sane successor would probably want to put as much political mileage between themselves and Hegseth as possible (not least because Hegseth is reportedly wildly unpopular in his own department). “I wasn’t surprised, but I was disappointed,” Massie told reporters after the vote, according to CBS. “My diagnosis of Congress is these people know what to do. They just can’t bring themselves to do it, even when it would benefit them politically.” Massie said he won’t bring another resolution. But Hegseth’s luck may run out in January, when the Democrats will assume overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate. Initiating an impeachment in the House is a simple matter of majority vote. In fact, Politico reported Massie and Democrats might have forced a floor vote if 11 Democrats hadn’t been absent during the Tuesday vote. Actually removing Hegseth would then require a two-thirds vote of senators present, or 67 senators if all 100 vote. Democrats have already won 54 Senate seats and may still win up to 56, which would mean as few as 11 Republican defections would be required to boot him from office. Politico reported on Tuesday that at least six Republican senators have already expressed willingness to hear evidence against Hegseth. One, departing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), has already suggested he’d vote guilty. While it would be a different crop of senators taking up the issue in January, and reaching 67 votes would be an uphill battle, it’s hard to imagine Hegseth isn’t sweating bullets over the prospect of becoming the third Cabinet official in U.S. history to be impeached. Trump can’t just issue a pardon to stop impeachments. Chris Truax, a charter member of the Society for the Rule of Law, argued last year that Hegseth could still be prosecuted for war crimes in the U.S. even if he receives a presidential pardon, because war crimes are international crimes the president has no authority to hand-wave away.