The House sent an impeachment resolution targeting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to committee in a 211-204 vote Tuesday, while 18 members did not vote on the procedural motion.
The Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House recorded 210 Republicans and one independent voting in favor. The opposing votes came from 203 Democrats and one Republican; Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who introduced the resolution, was the lone Republican voting no.
The Clerk listed 11 Democrats as not voting: Reps. Julia Brownley, J. Luis Correa, Laura Gillen, Steven Horsford, Jonathan L. Jackson, Nancy Pelosi, Brittany Pettersen, Melanie A. Stansbury, Haley M. Stevens, Marilyn Strickland and Frederica S. Wilson. The seven Republicans were Reps. Monica De La Cruz, Neal P. Dunn, Russell Fry, Julia Letlow, Thomas P. Tiffany, Derrick Van Orden and Rudy Yakym III. The roll call gave no reasons for their nonvotes.
H.Res. 1655, introduced by Massie, contains eight articles accusing Hegseth of misconduct connected to U.S. military actions in Iran, Yemen and elsewhere, including alleged violations of the War Powers Resolution, according to the Congressional Record. Lawmakers did not assess the truth of those charges in the referral vote.
In a White House release, Hegseth defended the operations as lawful and said Congress had been properly informed. He called the impeachment effort, “This is not patriotism; this is sabotage.”
