Massie Will Launch Hegseth Impeachment as GOP Tries to Figure Out Its Future

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who lost his primary earlier this year amid a Trump-backed campaign to oust him from Congress, says he will trigger a vote to impeach Secretary of “War” Pete Hegseth when Congress returns next week. Even with Republicans still in the majority in the House — for now — sources told CNN they expect Massie’s effort to advance.

If the House impeachment effort moves forward, I think it’s extremely unlikely that two-thirds of the members of this current Senate would vote to remove Hegseth. Still, impeachment in the House would be a dramatic rebuke of one of the most absurd Cabinet secretaries, and a sign of where the party is at.

Those Republicans who are trying to make some kind of sense of Tuesday’s loss — and not merely resorting to (very funny) catastrophizing — are blaming it on the Iran War. It’s certainly easier to scapegoat Hegseth, the cartoonish Fox News anchor-turned-defense secretary, than it is to blame Trump himself. Despite takes that we’ve reached the “end of Trumpism,” Republicans (and, probably, many TPM readers) know it won’t be over until it’s really, truly over.

Still, we’ll be tracking the ways in which the MAGA coalition starts to crack in the weeks and months ahead. Already, we can see the signs. Massie going rogue is nothing new, but adequate Republican support to begin his Hegseth-impeachment effort would be. Potential 2028 candidates — most notably, DeSantis and JD Vance — are scrambling to disassociate themselves from the Iran War; America Firsters like Massie claim (not unreasonably) that Trump lost support because he didn’t deliver on a few very important promises.

“Tonight’s outcome isn’t about placing faith in Democrats or socialist principles; it’s about holding Republicans accountable for betraying their promises,” Massie wrote on social media.

Meanwhile, Hegseth might get a mercy killing before the impeachment effort gets underway: CBS reports Trump is asking advisors about whether he should replace him.

Big Decision for Alito and Thomas

• “Just think what this means, having 56 senators,” outgoing Florida governor Ron DeSantis mused yesterday. “That means no Supreme Court justice will be confirmed under President Trump’s administration unless something happens in the next six weeks.”
• What might “happen”? Well, the oldest and most right-wing Supreme Court justices — Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas — might retire. Thomas is 78 and Alito is 76.
• Except Alito has repeatedly said he will not. He reiterated that commitment to friends this week, after the midterms, the New York Times reported yesterday, citing “two people close to the justice.”
• Thomas, who for years was famous for saying very little during Supreme Court oral arguments, has said very little.