On Tuesday, November 10, 2026, the House voted on whether to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It never got to that question. Instead, the House voted 211 to 204 to send the articles of impeachment to a committee, where they will sit until the current Congress ends in January. That move effectively killed the effort for now.

The articles were filed by a Republican, Kentucky's outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie. He charged Hegseth with waging an illegal war on Iran, ordering the killing of people at sea with no trial, and ignoring laws meant to protect civilians. Massie was the only Republican to vote no. Every Democrat who showed up voted no too.

Of the Republicans who voted to bury it, 182 have a report card on this site and were still in their races this fall. Six more with pages here, who had already lost or left their races, voted the same way. So does Kevin Kiley, whom the House clerk now lists as an independent, and who voted with them. Their names are at the bottom of this post. First, here is what they voted to protect.

What Pete Hegseth has done

He has killed more than 240 people on boats, with no trial

Since September 2025, the military has been blowing up boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific that the administration says carry drugs. The Intercept's tracker counts 72 strikes and at least 243 dead. Nobody on those boats was arrested, charged, or tried. For decades, the U.S. stopped suspected smugglers, arrested them, and took them to court. Experts in the laws of war, a Pentagon official and members of Congress from both parties call these strikes illegal killings.

It gets worse:

• After the very first strike, two men survived. The Washington Post reported that Hegseth had verbally ordered the crew to "kill everybody," and a second strike killed the survivors. We wrote about how the House Armed Services chairman dropped his investigation of that strike after 10 days.
• A top Pentagon official told lawmakers in a classified briefing that victims of human trafficking could have been among the dead in that first strike.
• Hegseth's own Pentagon now claims no civilians were killed in any of the boat strikes. One U.S. official said that claim has "absolutely no credibility."

Fifty Republican senators voted against even debating an end to the boat strikes.

His military bombed an elementary school, killing more than 150 people, most of them children

On the first day of Trump's war with Iran, an American missile hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran. A U.S. military investigation found that American forces carried out the attack, which killed more than 150 people, most of them children. One official called it "colossal negligence."

Hegseth's Pentagon then planned to sit on its report about the strike until after the midterms.

At his press conference hours before the vote, Hegseth expressed no regret for any of the operations he was charged over, including the Minab attack. "I stand behind every one of these operations," he said. "I was proud to execute them, and I would do it again tomorrow."

He fought a war Congress never approved, and lowballed the dead

The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. Congress never authorized the Iran war. A former chief of international law at U.S. Central Command, Air Force Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham, said the opening strike "clearly violates the U.S. Constitution and the War Powers Resolution." A phone call to a handful of congressional leaders the night before is not the formal notice the law requires.

At his press conference, Hegseth said 18 Americans had died in the war. The Pentagon's own count is at least 23 troops dead, including 11 killed by hostile fire, and the real number in the region is higher. His Pentagon also failed to disclose at least four troop deaths in the Middle East.

He tore up the rules meant to protect civilians

Before these attacks, Hegseth ran a campaign to undercut the military's work to avoid killing civilians. The Pentagon's Civilian Protection Center of Excellence went from 40 staff in January 2025 to just nine by the end of that year. The impeachment articles say he dismantled rules meant to keep civilians alive while carrying out the boat killings.

The articles also charge him with the invasion of Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, and with an illegal war in Yemen that has killed hundreds of civilians. A former adviser to Pentagon policymakers on the laws of war said the Venezuela attack was a clear violation of international law.

He purged women and Black officers

In February 2025, Trump fired Gen. CQ Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy's top officer. Hegseth called both of them to tell them. Brown was only the second Black American to hold the job. Franchetti was the first woman to lead the Navy.

Hegseth had already told the world where he stood. In his book, he wrote about whether Brown got his job because he is Black: "We'll never know, but always doubt." On a podcast a few months earlier, he said any top officer "involved in any of the DEI woke s--- has got to go."

In July 2025, Hegseth confirmed that Vice Adm. Yvette Davids, the first woman to lead the Naval Academy, was being reassigned to a Pentagon post after 18 months. Superintendents are normally expected to serve three to four years.

Mother Jones sums up the record: under Hegseth, the military has ousted female and Black officers, blocked promotions for Black service members, and targeted transgender troops.

He put troops in danger over a group chat

In 2025, Hegseth shared detailed plans for strikes in Yemen in a Signal group chat on his personal phone. The Pentagon's own inspector general found that he endangered troops and broke Pentagon rules doing it.

What the Republicans said

They didn't argue about the facts. They said none of it mattered.

Wisconsin's Tony Wied told FOX 11: "Policy disagreements are not impeachable offenses, and my colleagues know that." Montana's Troy Downing said the effort sets a "horrible precedent".

Killing survivors of a boat strike is not a policy disagreement. Neither is bombing a school.

The public sees it differently from these Republicans. In a Quinnipiac poll in September, just 32 percent of voters approved of how Hegseth is doing his job, and 57 percent disapproved.

The 182 Republicans on this site who voted to protect him

Every name below voted Yea on House Roll Call 317, the motion to send the Hegseth impeachment to committee. Kevin Kiley of California, now listed by the House clerk as an independent, voted Yea too.

• Alabama: Barry Moore, Dale Strong, Gary Palmer, Mike Rogers, Robert Aderholt
• Alaska: Nick Begich
• Arizona: Abraham Hamadeh, Andy Biggs, Eli Crane, Juan Ciscomani, Paul Gosar
• Arkansas: Bruce Westerman, French Hill, Rick Crawford, Steve Womack
• California: David Valadao, James Gallagher, Jay Obernolte, Ken Calvert, Tom McClintock, Vince Fong, Young Kim
• Colorado: Gabe Evans, Jeff Crank, Jeff Hurd, Lauren Boebert
• Florida: Aaron Bean, Anna Paulina Luna, Brian Mast, Byron Donalds, Carlos Gimenez, Greg Steube, Gus Bilirakis, Jimmy Patronis, John Rutherford, Kat Cammack, Laurel Lee, Maria Elvira Salazar, Mario Diaz-Balart, Mike Haridopolos, Randy Fine, Scott Franklin
• Georgia: Andrew Clyde, Austin Scott, Brian Jack, Clay Fuller, Mike Collins, Rich McCormick, Rick Allen
• Idaho: Mike Simpson, Russ Fulcher
• Illinois: Darin LaHood, Mary Miller, Mike Bost
• Indiana: Erin Houchin, Jefferson Shreve, Jim Baird, Mark Messmer, Marlin Stutzman, Victoria Spartz
• Iowa: Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn
• Kansas: Derek Schmidt, Ron Estes, Tracey Mann
• Kentucky: Andy Barr, Brett Guthrie, Hal Rogers, James Comer
• Louisiana: Clay Higgins, Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise
• Maryland: Andy Harris
• Michigan: Bill Huizenga, Jack Bergman, John James, John Moolenaar, Lisa McClain, Tim Walberg, Tom Barrett
• Minnesota: Brad Finstad, Michelle Fischbach, Pete Stauber, Tom Emmer
• Mississippi: Michael Guest, Mike Ezell, Trent Kelly
• Missouri: Ann Wagner, Bob Onder, Eric Burlison, Jason Smith, Mark Alford
• Montana: Troy Downing
• Nebraska: Adrian Smith, Mike Flood
• New Jersey: Chris Smith, Jeff Van Drew, Tom Kean Jr.
• New York: Andrew Garbarino, Claudia Tenney, Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota, Nick Langworthy, Nicole Malliotakis
• North Carolina: Addison McDowell, Brad Knott, David Rouzer, Greg Murphy, Mark Harris, Pat Harrigan, Richard Hudson, Tim Moore, Virginia Foxx
• North Dakota: Julie Fedorchak
• Ohio: Bob Latta, David Joyce, David Taylor, Jim Jordan, Max Miller, Michael Rulli, Mike Carey, Mike Turner, Troy Balderson, Warren Davidson
• Oklahoma: Frank Lucas, Josh Brecheen, Kevin Hern, Stephanie Bice, Tom Cole
• Oregon: Cliff Bentz
• Pennsylvania: Brian Fitzpatrick, Dan Meuser, Glenn Thompson, Guy Reschenthaler, John Joyce, Lloyd Smucker, Mike Kelly, Rob Bresnahan, Ryan Mackenzie, Scott Perry
• South Carolina: Joe Wilson, Sheri Biggs, William Timmons
• Tennessee: Chuck Fleischmann, David Kustoff, Diana Harshbarger, Matt Van Epps, Scott DesJarlais, Tim Burchett
• Texas: August Pfluger, Beth Van Duyne, Brandon Gill, Brian Babin, Craig Goldman, Jake Ellzey, John Carter, Keith Self, Lance Gooden, Michael Cloud, Nathaniel Moran, Pat Fallon, Pete Sessions, Randy Weber, Roger Williams, Ronny Jackson
• Utah: Blake Moore, Celeste Maloy, Mike Kennedy
• Virginia: Ben Cline, Jen Kiggans, John McGuire, Morgan Griffith, Rob Wittman
• Washington: Michael Baumgartner
• West Virginia: Carol Miller, Riley Moore
• Wisconsin: Bryan Steil, Glenn Grothman, Scott Fitzgerald, Tony Wied
• Wyoming: Harriet Hageman

The bottom line

On November 10, 182 Republicans on this site voted to bury the impeachment of a defense secretary whose military has killed more than 240 people on boats with no trial, bombed an elementary school where more than 150 people died, most of them children, and fought a war Congress never approved. The only Republican who voted to go ahead was the one who wrote the charges.

Source

• US House GOP blocks effort to impeach Hegseth — Michigan Advance / States Newsroom, November 10, 2026
• Debunking Pete Hegseth's Impeachment Defense — The Intercept, November 10, 2026
• Roll Call 317, H.Res. 1655 — Clerk of the U.S. House