Massie Plans to Force a House Vote Next Week on Impeaching Hegseth. What the Eight Articles Say, and How the Vote Works

What's happening. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, says he'll force the House to vote next week on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. (The administration calls him the secretary of war.) Massie told ABC News on Wednesday night that he intends to introduce it Monday or Tuesday, Nov. 9 or 10 (ABC News). He also told Roll Call last month that it would be a "week one" item when the House returns for its lame-duck session. He has named one condition for dropping it:

Post: Rep. Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) on X, Nov. 4, 2026.

President Trump told ABC's Jonathan Karl on Thursday morning, "I have every intention to keep him." He said he gets calls from people unhappy with Hegseth: "I get these calls, you know, about him. I don't understand why." Asked about Massie, Trump said he "is a guy who is very destructive and is a very bad guy" (ABC News).

This isn't new text. Massie first read the resolution on the House floor on Sept. 15 (Congressional Record, H5637-H5645) and posted the 34-page draft the same day (articles PDF; press release). The vote never came. House leaders ended the pre-election session early, and Massie said at the time that this postponed "a vote on my resolution" (X). He told Roll Call the new version will be "substantially the same eight articles, most likely." The draft has no resolution number yet.

The eight articles, in the resolution's own terms. Each one is an accusation. None has been tested in a hearing or a trial.

• I. Starting the Iran war without authority (War Powers Resolution, Sec. 2(c)). It says Hegseth sent U.S. forces into hostilities with Iran on Feb. 28, 2026, without a declaration of war, a specific authorization from Congress, or an attack on the United States. It cites the March 17 resignation letter of Joe Kent, then head of the National Counterterrorism Center: "Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation."
• II. Ignoring Congress's order to withdraw (Sec. 5(c)). The House passed H.Con.Res. 86, directing the president to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran, 215-208 on June 3 (Roll No. 199). The Senate passed it 50-48 on June 23 (Vote No. 184). The article calls that the first time both chambers had ever passed such a measure. It says Hegseth kept directing hostilities on June 26 "and continues to do so."
• III. Blowing through the 60-day clock (Sec. 5(b)). The law says unauthorized hostilities have to end within 60 days of the president's report to Congress, plus up to 30 more days if the president certifies they're needed for a safe withdrawal. The article counts from Trump's March 2 report: the 60 days ran out May 1, and even the extra 30 would have ended June 1. It says no certification was sent.
• IV. Civilian-protection laws. It accuses Hegseth of dismantling Pentagon programs Congress required to limit civilian harm. It says he cut more than 90% of the civilian-harm staff at combatant commands, removed the top military lawyers of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and dropped civilian protection from the 2026 National Defense Strategy. It ties this to what it describes as a U.S. Navy missile strike on Feb. 28 that hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran. Citing reported death tolls, it says at least 156 civilians were killed, at least 120 of them children. It also quotes Hegseth: "Maximum lethality, not tepid legality."
• V. "Extrajudicial killings" in the boat strikes. It says the military strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, which began Sept. 2, 2025, made up "at least 63 separate attack events" that "killed at least 221 individuals." It says survivors were hit in follow-up strikes or left at sea. It also says the strikes override laws that make drug smuggling at sea a crime for the Coast Guard and the courts to handle.
• VI. Retaliating against Sen. Mark Kelly. After the Arizona Democrat and retired Navy captain said in a November 2025 video, "You can refuse illegal orders," the article says Hegseth's department threatened to recall him for court-martial, censured him on Jan. 5, 2026, and threatened to cut his retired rank.
• VII. Seizing Nicolás Maduro. It calls the Jan. 3, 2026, operation that captured Venezuela's president and his wife a "kidnapping" and an act of war without approval from Congress. It says at least 83 people were killed and there were 7 U.S. casualties.
• VIII. Yemen. It says the March-May 2025 strikes on the Houthis were launched without authorization or an imminent threat, citing messages from the leaked Signal chat, including Hegseth's "we can easily pause." It cites an estimated 224 civilian deaths.

Four of the eight (I through IV) are about Iran. The death counts in Articles IV, V, VII and VIII are Massie's figures or reported tolls he cites. We haven't independently verified them. For the boat strikes, the Washington Office on Latin America, an advocacy group that logs each reported strike with sources, counted 243 people killed in 69 strikes as of its Oct. 27 update (WOLA tracker). The two counts use different methods, and strikes have continued since Massie wrote the resolution.

How a "privileged" resolution works. Most bills go to a committee, and the majority party's leaders decide whether they ever get a vote. A few kinds of measures can skip that line. One is a "question of the privileges of the House," and impeachment resolutions can be brought up that way. That's the route Massie is using, so he doesn't need Speaker Mike Johnson's permission to get a vote. In order:

1. Notice. Massie stands up on the floor and announces that he intends to offer the resolution. That's what he did in September.
2. A two-day window. After that, the resolution has to come up "at a time designated by the Chair within 2 legislative days," as the presiding officer put it on Sept. 15 (Congressional Record, H5645). A legislative day starts each time the House convenes after adjourning, so it isn't always a calendar day. Leaders choose when, inside that window. Short of keeping the House out of session, as happened in September, they can't keep it off the floor.
3. Does it qualify? When it comes up, the chair rules on whether it really is a question of privilege.
4. The motion to table. This is where most of these die. Any member, usually from the majority, can move to "lay the resolution on the table." That motion can't be debated, and it passes with a simple majority of members voting. If it passes, the resolution is dead, and the House never votes on the charges themselves. Members can instead vote to send it to a committee, which usually has the same effect.
5. The real vote. If the motion to table fails, the House debates the resolution and then votes on it. A simple majority of those voting impeaches.

The House did step 4 on Sept. 15 with a different resolution, Rep. Al Green's articles against Trump. A Republican moved to table, and the motion passed 232-147, with 47 members voting "present" (Roll No. 298). Eighteen Democrats voted to table it.

If the House impeaches, the Senate decides. Impeachment is like an indictment. Removal takes a trial in the Senate and a two-thirds vote of senators present (Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 3). The House has impeached a Cabinet member only twice: War Secretary William Belknap in 1876, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, 214-213, in 2024. The Senate dismissed the Mayorkas charges without a trial, Roll Call notes. Through the lame duck, both chambers are still under Republican control, until the new Congress is sworn in Jan. 3 (our coverage).