Nov. 10, 2026Updated Nov. 11, 2026, 12:04 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON – The House dismissed an effort to impeach Pete Hegseth, handing the embattled Pentagon chief a significant victory even as he faces serious questions about his political future.
The House voted 211-204 to send the measure to the Judiciary Committee, effectively killing it.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, who introduced the articles of impeachment against Hegseth, was the sole Republican to vote in favor of proceeding with the effort. The narrow vote came down, in part, to absences: 11 Democrats and seven Republicans didn’t vote.
The vote was a significant defeat for House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries ahead of an upcoming leadership election next week, where he is hoping to cement his position as the incoming speaker of the House.
If all the absent Democrats, a group that included Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California, had shown up to vote, the impeachment effort would have survived. Several said afterward they were delayed because of unexpected traffic coming from a Washington event.
In a statement, the office of Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-New Mexico, said she and other House members were “blocked from entering the Capitol to vote due to a traffic incident and a police escort of a bus during the vote.”
“When she reached the chamber, the vote had just gavelled out,” the statement said.
Massie, an anti-war Republican and frequent thorn in the side of the Trump administration, argued that Hegseth violated the Constitution by waging war against Iran without congressional approval, launching deadly strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and ignoring laws to minimize civilian casualties.
President Donald Trump took to social media to gloat after the impeachment effort failed. In interviews following the midterm elections, the president has said that he will make some changes to his cabinet, but that he remains confident in Hegseth.
Massie is set to exit Congress at the end of the year after losing his primary to a candidate backed by Hegseth and Trump.
“The Democrats’ attempt to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has miserably FAILED!” Trump wrote in a Nov. 10 post on Truth Social. “Every single Republican, except Thomas Massie, a major LOSER, voted in favor of Pete.”
Republicans, Democrats on Hegseth
Hegseth is one of the most controversial figures in Trump’s Cabinet. He had to overcome concerns from several Republicans to secure confirmation last year, has had a rocky tenure leading the Pentagon, and has become the public face of the deeply unpopular war with Iran.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell posted on social media that the vote is a “TOTAL VICTORY!”
“From the beginning, this effort has been a political exercise devoid of merit, evidence, or seriousness. It collapses under the weight of Secretary Hegseth’s record of restoring the warrior ethos, delivering results, and putting the mission first. The American people see through it,” he said.
Even as he narrowly avoided an impeachment vote, however, some Republican frustration remains. Hegseth has a strained relationship with Democrats and certain Republicans on the congressional armed services committees, and he will likely struggle to negotiate a bipartisan deal to fund the Pentagon.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Nebraska, who is retiring at the end of the year, said he didn’t support Massie’s rationale for impeachment, but pointed to other issues he had with Hegseth.
“The areas that concern me most about the secretary aren’t in the impeachment,” he told reporters on Nov. 9. He added, “I’m not the only one that feels that way, a bunch of us have talked about it.”
Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colorado, a former U.S. Army officer, said he doesn’t think that Hegseth will be empowered by the failed impeachment effort.
“I think he continues to be embattled and he’s his own worst enemy,” Crow told USA TODAY. “He just can’t help himself from falling on his face constantly, so I expect he will continue to do that.”
At a news conference earlier on Nov. 10, Hegseth likened the bid to remove him from office to the two times the House voted to impeach Trump.
“Both times he came back stronger, and the American people sent him back to the White House,” Hegseth said. “Now they’re trying a third time, this time against a member of his Cabinet. They will fail again.”
“If standing with President Trump puts me in that company, I’ll take that company every day of the week,” he added.
Trump had pledged to keep the Pentagon chief in office even if the House voted in favor of impeachment.
Hegseth is “perhaps the most popular and successful military official in the country,” Trump wrote in a social media post Nov. 9.
After the impeachment push failed, several House Republicans told USA TODAY they were relieved. But they also feared that the victory wouldn’t stop Democrats from trying again once they regain the majority in January.
“I’m not sure how we can fight it. We’re not going to have the votes to stop it,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Florida, told USA TODAY. “Here, the only thing that matters is the majority. And we don’t have it.”
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