EASTORA REPORT | JD Vance says the push to impeach Pete Hegseth has nothing to do with Iran. Four of the eight charges filed against the defense secretary explicitly concern the war.
The vice president stepped into the fight Tuesday, November 10, after Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced an impeachment resolution accusing Hegseth of violating U.S. law and the Constitution. “Has Pete Hegseth committed impeachable crimes? The question is absurd and the answer is: obviously not,” Vance wrote on X.
For Vance, the real dispute is over Hegseth’s changes inside the military: moving forces away from Europe and Ukraine and reshaping the ranks of senior officers. “This isn’t about Iran, this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon,” he wrote.
Massie’s 34-page resolution tells a different story. Three articles accuse Hegseth of waging or continuing war against Iran without congressional authorization. A fourth alleges that dismantling civilian-protection safeguards contributed to a deadly strike on a girls’ school in Minab. Other articles concern operations in Yemen and Venezuela, lethal strikes on suspected drug boats and alleged retaliation against Senator Mark Kelly.
Vance argued that Congress was using impeachment to avoid the harder work of legislating. “Legislation is hard. Impeachments are easy (and ultimately, inconsequential),” he wrote, drawing a parallel with past impeachments of Donald Trump.
At the Pentagon on Tuesday, Hegseth called Massie’s effort “a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment.” He defended the military operations as lawful, while Trump publicly backed him.
Massie’s move came just days after Democrats won control of both chambers in the midterm elections, with the Iran war weighing heavily on the Republican Party. The House was preparing for a procedural vote Tuesday that could stop the resolution before a vote on impeachment itself.
Even if the House impeaches Hegseth, removing him would require a two-thirds majority in the Senate. But the first test will be whether enough Republicans are willing to let the charges reach the House floor.