Massie's surprise impeachment push against Hegseth

Rep. Al Green (D-TX), who lost his May primary, forced a House vote to impeach President Trump on September 16, citing federal immigration officers' killing of two US citizens during 2026 enforcement operations; it was Green's second such attempt, after 127 House Democrats joined Republicans in 2025 to table a similar effort. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other Democratic leaders again voted "present" rather than take a stand, arguing impeachment requires extensive investigative work that hadn't been done, and the House voted to table (kill) the resolution, with most Democrats joining Republicans. Hours before that vote, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie -- who also lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger and did not tell party leadership in advance -- stunned colleagues by introducing eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, becoming the first member of Congress to try to impeach a sitting Cabinet secretary from his own party. Massie's articles accused Hegseth of waging an unlawful, undeclared war in Iran in violation of the War Powers Resolution, ignoring congressional withdrawal directives, ordering extrajudicial killings of suspected drug traffickers in Caribbean maritime strikes, illegally "kidnapping" former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in Operation Absolute Resolve, retaliating against Sen. Mark Kelly for a video urging troops to refuse unlawful orders, and launching unauthorized strikes in Yemen (Operation Rough Rider) that killed civilians.

Both impeachment pushes were considered doomed to fail but created political headaches for each party's leadership just before a seven-week recess ahead of the November midterms; Democratic aides privately welcomed Massie's move as offsetting the awkwardness of Green's push. Separately, the same week, two centrist House Democrats -- Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and retiring Rep. Jared Golden -- again defected on a procedural rule vote that advanced a Russia-sanctions bill Trump supports, prompting an on-floor confrontation between Gluesenkamp Perez and Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and renewed internal debate over disciplining caucus defectors.