GOP branded ‘sinking ship’ as Republicans block efforts to impeach Hegseth – US politics live

Nancy Pelosi was one of 11 Democratic politicians to miss the Pete Hegseth impeachment vote.

If just eight of them had turned up to vote with their colleagues, the motion would have passed and the articles for impeachment would have moved forward.

The other Democrats recorded as not voting were Julia Brownley, Lou Correa, Laura Gillen of New York, Steven Horsford of Nevada, Jonathan Jackson of Illinois, Brittany Pettersen of Colorado, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, Stevens of Michigan, Marilyn Strickland of Washington and Frederica Wilson of Florida, the Daily Beast reported.

House Republicans blocked an effort to impeach Hegseth, rejecting allegations that the defense secretary had repeatedly violated the constitution through his handling of the Iran war and other conflicts globally.

A motion to refer Thomas Massie’s eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth to committee passed in the House, 211-204.

The Pentagon declared “total victory” after the vote and Donald Trump celebrated the vote as an “EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot”.

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Republican representative Thomas Massie compared the GOP with passengers content to go down with the Titanic after colleagues thwarted his effort to impeach defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

The vote came a week after Republicans lost control of the Senate and House of Representatives in their worst midterm election in more than a half century, and underscored how lawmakers remain wary of crossing Donald Trump, who has signaled his continued support for Hegseth.

“They know it’s a sinking ship but committed to stay on board,” Massie, a Republican congressman who lost his primary after breaking with the president, said.

Top Democrats announced their support for the resolution, but Republicans moved to kill it by referring it to the judiciary committee. Their motion succeeded on Tuesday, by a 211-204 vote, largely along party lines. Massie was the sole Republican to oppose the motion, along with all Democrats.

Trump, who was twice impeached, celebrated what he hailed as the “EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot” and lashed out at Massie for forcing the vote.

“The Democrats continue to weaponize and abuse the United States of America,” Trump said on Truth Social. “They must be stopped!”

The Pentagon, meanwhile, declared “total victory”. “The referral of these baseless impeachment articles to the House judiciary committee marks total victory for Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War, and the American warfighter,” Sean Parnell, a department spokesperson, wrote in a social media post.

Some 11 Democratic representatives skipped the vote, the Daily Beast reported earlier this morning, causing the articles of impeachment to fail. Among those to miss the vote was Nancy Pelosi.

If eight of ‌them had voted with fellow Democrats the measure could have proceeded.

House Democratic leader Hakeen Jeffries said he would talk to members about whether to mount a new impeachment effort in the next ​Congress in January when the Democrats who triumphed in the midterm take their seats. “We’ll have that conversation at the appropriate time,” he said.

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In other developments:

• Congressman Jim Jordan, a Republican hardliner from Ohio, won the election to become the next House minority leader in Congress. Jordan beat Representative Steve Scalise, the current majority leader, by 106-73 in a closed-door vote to lead Republicans from January. He replaces the current House speaker, Mike Jonson, who said he would not run when the GOP cedes control to Democrats in the new year.

• Meanwhile, Republicans in the upper chamber, re-elected John Thune to serve as Senate minority leader in the next Congress. The GOP senator from North Dakota didn’t face a challenger in the closed-door vote, as Democrats prepare for at least a 10-seat majority in the new year.

• Nine members of the Kennedy family sued the Trump administration in an effort to block its construction of a 250-foot triumphal arch. The family’s complaint states that the arch, which is planned for near Arlington national cemetery, would obstruct the Kennedy gravesites, the JFK Eternal Flame and the sightlines of the cemetery, “permanently diminishing these memorials.”

• A federal judge has allowed Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the BBC to proceed. Trump is suing Britain’s publicly funded broadcaster for $10bn over an edited clip that made it appear that Trump told his supporters to storm the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.