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apnews.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Tuesday turned aside a resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, halting an effort to remove the Pentagon chief for his conduct in office and his handling of the war in Iran.

The vote came as Republicans grapple with the fallout from sweeping midterm losses that some in the party have blamed on the war in Iran and the resulting surge in gas prices. But after President Donald Trump signaled strong support for Hegseth, GOP lawmakers largely stood by the secretary Tuesday. They rejected the impeachment effort led by Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie and backed by Democrats.

The vote may only delay an impeachment push against Hegseth, with Democrats set to take control of the House and Senate in January.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is expected to become the next speaker when Democrats take charge in January, stood firmly behind the push, saying Hegseth has “abused his power” and “undermined America’s national security.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer endorsed Hegseth’s impeachment as well.

Hegseth rebuked the effort Tuesday in his first news conference in months, portraying Massie as a rogue lawmaker and arguing he had committed none of the high crimes required in the Constitution for his removal. He framed the effort as an indictment against the nation’s service members and their successes and said it was undermining American forces “in real time.”

“This is not patriotism,” Hegseth said. “This is sabotage.”

  • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    181·
    16 hours ago

    Yeah, impeachment failed in part because Hakeem Jeffries couldn’t even be bothered to whip the vote.

    For those who don’t know what that means, to whip the vote is to go around all your party members, make sure you know how they’re going to vote, nudge any stragglers into line if you can, and make sure they all know when the vote is scheduled so they can actually be there.

    That’s where the name “whip” comes from: the party whip literally goes around and does whatever they have to do to get the vote of their party’s members on a specific bill, almost as if with a physical whip, like corralling horses or herding cattle to get them where they need to be and vote.

    To do this is one of Jeffries’ main responsibilities as current minority leader, it’s done on every important bill, and he doesn’t even have to do the leg work himself: he has actual appointed whips that do it for him. If you’re a Speaker and you don’t care about this bill, or worse, you actively want this bill to fail because you could not prevent it from coming to a vote, you don’t bother to whip. It’s kind of a soft sabotage.

    And Jeffries couldn’t be bothered to whip the vote to impeach Hegseth on actual war crimes. He told the House Dems, “Vote your conscience,” and then just dropped it. All the Dems who did vote got themselves there because they cared about it enough to do so. There is at least one who was not present because of illness, and I understand another tried but didn’t make it because of an unforeseen traffic problem: the vote closed before they could get there. But the rest? Hell, it wasn’t even important enough for Jeffries to whip, why would they bother?

    This apathetic turnout vote is another perfect demonstration of WHY HAKEEM JEFFRIES NEEDS TO GO.