The vice president who told Republicans their midterm collapse was the Iran war’s fault now insists the drive to impeach the defense secretary has nothing to do with Iran.
Eleven House Democrats missed the Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, vote that effectively killed Rep. Thomas Massie’s effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the motion would have failed 215-211 if all of them had been in the chamber. The Republican-led House instead voted 211-204 to refer Massie’s eight articles of impeachment to the Judiciary Committee, a procedural step that ended the effort. Had the motion failed, the House would have moved on to the articles themselves.
The absent Democrats were Julia Brownley, Lou Correa, Laura Gillen, Steven Horsford, Jonathan Jackson, Nancy Pelosi, Brittany Pettersen, Melanie Stansbury, Haley Stevens, Marilyn Strickland and Frederica Wilson. Seven Republicans also missed the vote.
Pelosi was in San Francisco for a Veterans Day event, her spokesman, Ian Krager, told ABC News. “She supports impeaching Secretary Hegseth and would have voted ‘No’ on the motion to refer,” Krager said.
Vance Says Iran Isn’t the Point
Vice President JD Vance spent the hours before the vote defending Hegseth in public. “Has Pete Hegseth committed impeachable crimes? The question is absurd and the answer is: obviously not,” he wrote on X. “Congress has so many tools for registering its policy disagreements. Rather than use them, they’re going to try to impeach Pete Hegseth. They did the same to Donald Trump. Legislation is hard. Impeachments are easy (and ultimately, inconsequential),” he continued.
His most-noted line recast the whole fight. “This isn’t about Iran, this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon,” Vance posted. Lawmakers are angriest, he argued, precisely where Hegseth has been most correct, citing the repositioning of forces away from Europe and Ukraine and the reorganization of the general officer corps.
A week earlier, Vance had offered a different diagnosis in a lengthy post on Nov. 4, after Democrats seized both chambers in the Nov. 3 midterms. “The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” he wrote, and added: “But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.” Republicans across the party have blamed the Iran war and the surge in gas prices that followed. Those losses hand Democrats control of the next Congress, which convenes Jan. 3, 2027.
Eight Articles That Reach Beyond Iran
Massie, a Kentucky Republican, filed his privileged resolution on Monday, Nov. 9, a status that gave GOP leaders two days to bring it to the floor. His eight articles accuse Hegseth of illegally waging war without congressional authorization, abusing the powers of his office and violating the Constitution, and they reach well beyond Iran to military actions in Yemen and Venezuela, including the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and extrajudicial killings of alleged drug smugglers in international waters.
The articles also cite reported cuts to the staff and resources of the Pentagon office charged with mitigating civilian harm, reductions that preceded a U.S. missile striking an Iranian primary school. That strike killed up to 168 people. One article covers Hegseth’s attempt to punish Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly over a video urging troops to resist unlawful orders. Massie says the war has run 256 days with no congressional authorization, and that the law requires the military to withdraw from hostilities within 60 days absent one.
He Calls It Sabotage, Not Patriotism
Hegseth answered from the Pentagon briefing room on Tuesday, Nov. 10, his first news conference there in six months. “This is not patriotism. This is sabotage,” he said, rejecting the allegations as politically motivated and saying he has no intention of resigning. Massie’s complaints, he said, amount to “policy disagreements, not high crimes.”
President Donald Trump graded the news conference an A-plus on Truth Social the same day and has said he intends to keep Hegseth. On Nov. 12, Hegseth awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal to Spc. Thomas Iglesias for his duties at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Nov. 11, after Iglesias reprimanded the secretary’s group there. “We love soldiers. We love standards. Well done, Specialist,” Hegseth posted.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, asked by Fox News’ Peter Doocy on “The FOX News Rundown” podcast on Nov. 13 whether he was interested in replacing Hegseth, said: “I think he’s going to stand by the current secretary after this impeachment gambit. I mean, you can disagree with a cabinet secretary, but to just try to use impeachment on policy grounds and policy differences, I don’t think that’s a good precedent.”
The Resolution Dies With This Congress
The referred resolution will die in the Judiciary Committee at the end of the current Congress on Jan. 3, 2027, leaving Democrats free to file new articles once they hold the gavel. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is in line to become speaker, has backed the push, saying Hegseth “abused his power” and “undermined our national security.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has endorsed impeachment. The House needs only a simple majority, so a Democratic majority could approve articles without a single Republican vote, though removal requires two-thirds of the Senate, and a trial could come soon after Democrats take that chamber.
Republicans spent Nov. 10, the day of the vote, choosing new leadership. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio beat Majority Leader Steve Scalise 106-73 to lead House Republicans in the minority after Speaker Mike Johnson stepped aside, while Senate Republicans re-elected John Thune leader by acclamation. Massie, who lost his primary this year to a Trump-backed challenger, leaves Congress in January 2027.
Hegseth would be the third Cabinet secretary impeached in American history, after William Belknap, President Ulysses S. Grant’s secretary of war, in 1876, and Alejandro Mayorkas, President Joe Biden’s homeland security secretary, in 2024.
