Republicans block impeachment effort against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth | Hanomansing Live

An effort to impeach U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has failed. When representatives voted to derail the motion, this was the outcome. The yeas are 211, the nays are 204. The motion is adopted. As Republicans grapple with the fallout from the sweeping midterm losses they largely stood by Hegseth, they rejected the impeachment effort brought forward by one of their own, Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie. Journalist James Goodison is in Washington with more on this vote. James, walk us through these results. Yeah, Ian, well, the final result was 211-204, as you were hearing just there. And effectively, there were three possible scenarios from this vote tonight. Either this impeachment motion would proceed to a full vote tomorrow, whether it would be thrown out entirely, or indeed what has actually happened, which is it's been kicked into the long grass. They've effectively voted to put it in with a committee. But the reality of it is that every single member of the House of Representatives who voted in this motion of impeachment, they stood for election a week ago and some of them won and some of them lost. We have not yet had the handover from the midterm elections. The blue wave has not hit. Washington yet. It does so on the 3rd of January. So we're in something called the lame duck Congress. Republicans are still in charge of the top jobs in the House of Representatives. The Republicans are still in charge and have a majority in both chambers. So there was sort of a sense that this was unlikely to succeed. But I would say the atmosphere up on Capitol Hill has been febrile over the past 48 hours since they returned from the midterms. Lots of Republicans have lost their seats grappling with the fact that the Iran war, which, of course, ultimately, Pete Hegseth is a key. Part of in his position was hugely unpopular and cost them votes on the doorstep. So effectively, where we are right now is this has been kicked into the long grass. But perhaps the danger isn't purely subsided yet for Pete Hegseth. Indeed, many Republicans want the president to sack him. Pete Hegseth did a press conference this morning at the Pentagon and predicted what would happen this evening. Impeached President Trump over a perfect phone call. They impeached him again in his final week in office. Both times they failed. Now they're trying a third time. This time against a member of his cabinet. They will fail again. And if standing with President Trump puts me in that company, I'll take that company every day of the week. So this political process is not familiar to most Canadians. Is there anything to be done to revive this motion or is it dead for good? Pete Hegseth is facing pressure from two sides, Ian. Firstly, when it comes to Congress, it feels it would be very extraordinary if another article of impeachment was laid before Christmas. But of course, the Democrats are coming to town and they will have the power to do so. They've already told the Trump administration. So there's still that pressure there. And I think sort of watch this space come January, whether or not they go directly for Mr. Hegseth remains to be seen. But then there's also pressure on President Trump from Republicans in Congress who are very frustrated with Pete Hegseth for a variety of different reasons. They ideally want him to be fired rather than impeached. The pressure's off for now, but this could just be a stay of execution. That was James Goodison in Washington.