Impeachment Is Not a Policy Weapon: What the Constitution and History Say About the Drive to Oust Pete Hegseth

The effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stalled in the House this week. Democrats say it is only getting started.

Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican, introduced eight articles of impeachment accusing Hegseth over the war with Iran and military strikes on boats, actions Massie argued were carried out without congressional approval, ABC News reported. On Tuesday the House voted 211-204 to send the articles to the Judiciary Committee, a move that effectively stopped the effort, Newsweek reported. Hegseth dismissed the push as a political spectacle and a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment, according to ABC.

Democrats, who won control of the House in last week's elections, are signaling they will try again. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said the impeachment fight was "just the beginning," The Daily Beast reported.

The case against Hegseth, as Massie framed it, rests on a real constitutional debate: who decides when America goes to war. That debate is legitimate and as old as the republic. Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, and Article II makes the president commander in chief. Americans of good faith, including some conservatives, believe recent presidents of both parties have stretched that balance too far.

But a serious debate about war powers is not the same thing as an impeachable offense by the man carrying out the president's orders.

The framers chose their words carefully. Under Article II, Section 4, the president, vice president and all civil officers of the United States may be removed on impeachment and conviction for "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

The Senate's own history office notes that the Constitution does not define that last phrase and that its meaning has long been debated. It also explains the structure the framers built: the House impeaches by a simple majority, but conviction and removal require two-thirds of the Senate. That supermajority was designed to make removal rare, and to keep it from becoming a tool for whichever party happens to control the House.

In more than two centuries, only two Cabinet secretaries have been impeached, according to the Senate's list of impeachment cases.

The first was Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876. Belknap resigned on March 2 of that year, minutes before the House was scheduled to vote, and the House impeached him unanimously anyway, according to the Senate. At his trial, a majority of senators voted against him on all five articles, but none reached two-thirds, and he was acquitted that August.

The second was Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In April 2024, after a Republican House impeached him over his handling of the southern border, the Senate dismissed the charges as unconstitutional, according to the Senate's records. The Senate's majority concluded that the articles, which grew out of a policy dispute, did not meet the constitutional standard.

That argument cuts both ways, and fairness demands that it be applied evenly. If disagreement over border policy was not grounds for impeaching a Cabinet secretary in 2024, disagreement over war policy is not grounds for impeaching one in 2027.

None of this means Congress is powerless. The Constitution gives lawmakers the power of the purse, the power to legislate limits on military operations and the power to hold hearings and demand answers. A Democratic House will have every one of those tools in January. Using them is how the system is supposed to work.

Impeaching the secretary who carries out the commander in chief's orders, by contrast, targets the wrong official for the wrong reason. It would turn a constitutional safeguard meant for treason and corruption into a weapon for policy fights, and it would invite the next majority to do the same to the next administration.

The House has already said no once, with 11 Democrats absent for the vote, as we reported earlier. President Trump stood by Hegseth at Arlington on Veterans Day, praising him hours after the vote, Newsweek reported.

When the new Congress convenes, Democrats may well bring impeachment back. If they do, the American people should insist on the standard the framers wrote down, not the one that happens to be convenient. The Constitution reserves impeachment for grave wrongdoing. Policy differences belong at the ballot box, in the budget and in the halls of Congress, where they have always been settled.