House Votes 211-204 to Refer Hegseth Impeachment Resolution, Effectively Killing It

The Republican-led House of Representatives voted 211-204 on Tuesday evening to refer a privileged impeachment resolution against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee, a procedural move that both NBC News and CBS News described as effectively killing the effort. The official tally is recorded as roll call 317 on H. Res. 1655, a motion to refer that passed, according to the House clerk’s office.

Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican and a critic of both Hegseth and President Donald Trump, was the only Republican who voted against the referral, joining 203 Democrats, the clerk’s roll call shows. One Independent, Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, voted with 210 Republicans in favor. Eighteen members did not vote, including seven Republicans and 11 Democrats. The vote came hours after a morning news conference at the Pentagon, where the secretary called the impeachment push a “political spectacle,” as The Boston Report reported earlier Tuesday.

House roll call 317 on the motion to refer H. Res. 1655, the impeachment resolution against the defense secretary, on Nov. 10, 2026. A “yea” vote sent the resolution to the Judiciary Committee. Source: Office of the Clerk, House roll call 317; chart: The Boston Report.

How the referral ends this week’s effort

Massie had filed the resolution as a privileged measure, which forced Republican leaders to call a vote within two legislative days, NBC News reported. Sending it to the Judiciary Committee, which Republicans still control in the current Congress, allows the majority to avoid a direct vote on the eight articles and to slow-walk the process, Al Jazeera reported, citing The Associated Press.

CBS News reported that Massie said Monday he would not bring up another resolution to impeach the secretary. He is retiring in early January after losing his Republican primary earlier this year. Democrats, who are on track to take control of both chambers in January, could still revive the issue. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, has said Democrats will “run Pete Hegseth out of town” when they take over Congress next year, NBC News reported.

Even if the House had adopted the articles, a Senate conviction would have required a two-thirds vote. Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate, and Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican who is leaving Congress, told reporters the effort would “die in the Senate.” “The secretary has committed no high crimes or misdemeanors,” Issa said, according to NBC News.

CBS News noted that only two Cabinet secretaries in U.S. history have been impeached: Secretary of War William Belknap, in 1876, over a corruption scandal, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in 2024, over his handling of the southern border. Belknap was acquitted by the Senate; the charges against Mayorkas were dismissed.

What the eight articles alleged

Massie’s resolution included eight articles of impeachment. NBC News, summarizing the text, said the first charges the secretary “with waging the Iran war despite no declaration of war, statutory authorization, attack on the United States, or imminent threat.” Three other articles related to Iran fault him with continuing the war after the House and Senate directed the removal of U.S. forces; continuing hostilities after the War Powers Resolution’s 60-day termination period had expired; and ignoring laws that minimize civilian casualties.

Another article charges him with directing “extrajudicial killings” of suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean, secondary strikes on survivors, and overseeing orders to U.S. personnel not to rescue shipwrecked persons, NBC News reported. Others say he illegally seized and deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “to assert U.S. control over Venezuela’s oil reserves”; used the Defense Department to retaliate against and demote Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat, for telling service members they should not follow unlawful orders; and carried out an unlawful war in Yemen.

Massie, the lone Republican who voted with Democrats against the referral, said the secretary “has violated the norms of war, and it’s to the disadvantage and the dishonor of our country, and to the danger of our soldiers in future conflicts.” “Somebody’s got to put their foot down and say, are we going to follow the laws that are on the books? Are we going to follow the Constitution?” he continued, according to NBC News. “And the best way to do that is to have an impeachment against Pete Hegseth.”

The secretary’s defense, and Republican resistance

At his morning news conference, the secretary denounced the effort as a “farce” and a “stunt.” “None of these are high crimes or misdemeanors,” he said, according to CBS News. “They’re partisan policy disagreements from people who want to politicize our military.” He argued that the military actions cited in the resolution were “lawful” and compared Tuesday’s vote to the two Democratic-led impeachments of Trump in his first term. “If standing with President Trump puts me in that company, I’ll take that company every day of the week,” he said, NBC News reported. “We destroyed terror regimes’ capabilities. We sank the boats carrying poison into our communities. We put a narco dictator in handcuffs. These are not high crimes. This is the job, and it’s the job well done.”

Trump posted his support on Truth Social after the morning appearance, saying the secretary “gets an ‘A’ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!” After the vote, Trump called it an “EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot” and added, “The Democrats continue to weaponize and abuse the United States of America. They must be stopped!” NBC News reported. Al Jazeera quoted a further post in which Trump said, “The Democrats’ attempt to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has miserably FAILED! Every single Republican, except Thomas Massie, a major LOSER, voted in favour of Pete.”

Some Republicans who have criticized the secretary still opposed impeachment this week. Outgoing Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, an Air Force veteran, told reporters he has had “plenty of disagreements” with the secretary but did not like how the resolution was led by Massie. “I don’t really align with the impeachment itself,” Bacon said, according to NBC News. “But I surely, if you would have put in [a line] about firing 80 generals, if we talk about firing 80 generals and not spending appropriated money, I’d feel a little differently about it.” CBS News reported that many Republicans, though frustrated with the secretary’s handling of a war that has stretched into its ninth month, did not think his conduct rose to the level of impeachment.

What comes next

The secretary remains in office, and the current House majority has now bottled up this resolution in committee. Democrats will have new tools in January if they take the gavel, including the ability to bring impeachment back to the floor. A Senate trial would still require 67 votes to convict, a threshold Issa and other Republicans said does not exist today. For this week, the clerk’s roll call is the record: 211 to refer, 204 opposed, Massie alone among Republicans on the “nay” side, and the articles themselves unvoted.

Sources

• Office of the Clerk, U.S. House: Roll Call 317, H. Res. 1655, Nov. 10, 2026
• NBC News: Republican-led House rejects Hegseth impeachment effort
• CBS News: House blocks Massie’s effort to impeach Hegseth, voting to kill resolution
• Al Jazeera: US House Republicans block Pete Hegseth impeachment effort