The impeachment of Secretary of Defeat, Whiskey Pete Kegsbreath, should have sailed through the House of Representatives yesterday, but the Republican leadership of the House derailed that effort with some procedural nonsense. It does not greatly matter as the Democratic House will vote to impeach him the first week or two of January. If the White House is wise, the president will fire him the day before Thanksgiving. That timing will keep the bad press to a minimum as the public will not be paying attention. Whether that happens or not, the next Congress will spend a noticeable amount of time investigating the shenanigans at the Pentagon over the last 22 months.
The impeachment attempt came from Thomas Massie (R-KY) who broke with the administration some time ago and who is not coming back in January. He read from the well of the House eight articles of impeachment against the adolescent cabinet member. As Robert Jimison explained in today’s New York Times:
Three of the charges center on the war with Iran, which Mr. Massie argues was unlawful from the start. The remaining articles focus on decisions Mr. Hegseth has made in overseeing the Pentagon, including his rollback of civilian-casualty protections and military strikes against suspected drug traffickers in the Pacific and Caribbean.
Anyone who has been paying any attention at all knows he has blundered through him tenure quite badly. He was the one who added a journalist to a classified chat group on an unsecure phone app. He has fired generals and admirals (he himself never rose beyond the rank of major in the reserves) for nothing more than being the wrong sex or color. And not once has he strayed from 100% loyalty to the president, despite the fact that his job is to advise, caution and warn.
“Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified secretary that this nation has seen,” Ms. Lacore, a Democrat who flipped the South Carolina seat held by Representative Nancy Mace, said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “He has caused significant damage to us as a country and put us at risk, and really damaged the readiness of our entire military force.”
When it came time to consider the impeachment after the articles had been read into the record, the GOP moved to send the whole thing to committee, effectively killing it off this Congress. The Hill stated:
House Republicans defeated the impeachment effort by approving a procedural motion to refer the resolution to committee, effectively killing it. The vote, 211 to 204, with only one Republican, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, breaking with his party to join Democrats who opposed the effort.
Some of the Democratic lawmakers who missed the Tuesday evening vote — including Reps. Melanie Stansbury (N.M.), Jonathan Jackson (Ill.) and Laura Gillen (N.Y.) — said they were blocked from reaching the Capitol before the vote closed because of traffic.
“Like other Members of Congress, Rep. Stansbury was blocked from entering the Capitol to vote due a traffic incident and a police escort of a bus during the vote,” the New Mexico Democrat said in a statement on social media after the vote.
There is no excuse for missing that vote. None. A three-line whip is less serious and important. Disciplinary action is in order.
That said, there is nothing stopping the next Congress from doing it all over again. And the strategy of the Democratic leadership is going to be investigation and impeachment of cabinet members. First off, this cabinet is deserving of removal. Second, the 67 votes needed in the US Senate to remove an impeached official from office is impossible for the president, but the cabinet members are less popular. Those scalps are possible. The Secretary of Defeat is just the first of many.
Mr. Jimison also wrote:
Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, warned that Hegseth faces two likely outcomes from the impeachment effort. “Either Hegseth is going to step down, either he will resign voluntarily or Trump will fire him. Or if that does not happen, I think it is extremely likely, if not certain, that the House will impeach him,” he said in his podcast on Monday. It echoes the stark reality many Republicans in Washington say is facing the secretary.
He can either leave quietly this month, or he can be put through televised hearings and a trial in the Senate day after day. It is time to cut losses.