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US impeachment process, and the Senate numbers that would be needed to remove Pete Hegseth
Republican Thomas Massie has forced a House vote on eight articles. Even a Democratic Senate from January would need at least 13 Republicans to convict.
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The US House of Representatives could vote as early as Wednesday on impeaching defence secretary Pete Hegseth, but removing him would take a two-thirds vote in the Senate, which has never convicted a member of a US cabinet.
Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman from Kentucky and a Trump critic who lost his party’s primary in May to a Trump-endorsed challenger, former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, filed eight articles of impeachment on November 9, 2026. Massie leaves office in January.
His resolution accuses Hegseth of waging war on Iran without the approval of Congress, among other charges. Democrats, who won both chambers in the November 3 midterm elections and take control on January 3, have said they want Hegseth out as well.
How does impeachment work?
Impeachment is a two-stage process written into the US Constitution. The House has the sole power to impeach, which is akin to bringing formal charges, and the Senate has the sole power to try the case. The Constitution allows impeachment for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors”.
In the first stage, a House member files a resolution listing the charges, known as articles of impeachment. The House usually sends such a resolution to its judiciary committee to investigate. Massie instead filed his as a question of the “privileges of the House”, a route that obliges party leaders to bring it to the floor within two legislative days. The House can then approve the articles by a simple majority. It can also vote to table the resolution, which kills it, or refer it to a committee, which shelves it.
Approved articles go to the Senate. House members appointed as managers present the case, and senators act as the jury. Conviction needs two-thirds of the senators present.
A convicted official is removed from office, and the Senate can then bar that person from holding federal office again by a separate simple-majority vote.
The Senate does not have to hold a full trial. In April 2024, it dismissed both articles against homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by voting that they were unconstitutional, without hearing evidence.
Also read: In 250 years, US has impeached only 2 cabinet secretaries; Pete Hegseth could be the third
What is Hegseth accused of?
Three of Massie’s eight articles accuse Hegseth of breaching the War Powers Resolution of 1973 (which limits how long US forces can fight without approval from Congress) over the Iran war. The other five cover laws meant to protect civilians during military operations, and strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats that killed at least 243 people, which the resolution calls “Extrajudicial Killings”.
They also cover alleged retaliation against Mark Kelly, a Democratic senator from Arizona, and strikes in Yemen.
Another concerns the January commando raid in which US forces deposed Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, which the resolution describes as “Kidnapping of a Sovereign Foreign Leader”.
The charges are allegations made in the resolution and have not been tested in a court or by an investigation.
Hegseth said in a video message last week that he would not back down, Reuters reported. “It didn’t work against President Trump, and it won’t work with me,” he said, referring to the two impeachments of President Donald Trump.
Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes: “They want to impeach him. Very unfair. We had two wars, we won both,” according to a CBS transcript cited by Reuters. Reuters said he was referring to Iran and Venezuela.
Could House impeach him this week?
Republicans control the House until January 3, and Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican who leads the chamber, opposes the effort. Reuters quoted him as saying impeachment “in the middle of hostilities abroad” would be “a terrible thing for our allies and our enemies to see”.
Reuters reported, citing congressional sources, that the resolution may still have the simple majority it needs. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has said he is a “hard yes”. Asked on Monday whether he had enough Republican support to defeat it, Hegseth said: “We’re not worried about that.”
Also read: ‘Won two wars’: Trump backs Pete Hegseth amid impeachment calls, says he'll ‘stand by him’
Could Senate remove him?
Republicans hold 53 of the current Senate’s 100 seats, and conviction there looks out of reach on present numbers. With every senator voting, conviction needs 67 votes. To get this, at least 20 Republicans would have to join every other senator in voting to convict.
A House vote this week would not necessarily mean a trial in this Senate. Articles approved by one Congress can be tried by the next. The House impeached president Bill Clinton in December 1998, and the Senate tried him in January and February 1999, after a new Congress had convened.
Democrats will hold at least 54 seats in the incoming Senate from January 3, on races called so far, with contests in Alaska and Mississippi still undecided. Convicting Hegseth there would still need at least 13 Republican votes, assuming every Democrat voted to convict.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader who is expected to become majority leader, has said the Senate needs to put Hegseth on trial. “Hegseth waged this war illegally, in open defiance of the Constitution, and multiple War Powers Resolutions this Congress passed to end the fighting,” he said, according to Reuters.
In history
The House has impeached a cabinet member only twice, and the Senate convicted neither. William Belknap, secretary of war under president Ulysses S Grant, resigned on March 2, 1876, minutes before the House was due to vote on articles of impeachment accusing him of corruption. The House impeached him unanimously the same day.
The Senate, which decided that it could still try a former official, in August 1876 voted on all five articles. Each vote fell short of two-thirds, and he was acquitted.
Belknap remains the only secretary of war or defence to have been impeached, Reuters reported. Hegseth, the defence secretary who also uses the title ‘secretary of war’, would become the second if impeached.
Mayorkas, Joe Biden’s homeland security secretary, was the second. The House impeached him narrowly in February 2024, the first time in nearly 150 years that a cabinet secretary had been impeached, according to the Associated Press. The Democratic-controlled Senate dismissed the charges in April; the vote on the first article was 51-48, along party lines.
What could happen short of removal?
Massie has urged Trump to act before the new Congress meets. “President Trump should replace Secretary Hegseth now while he can still get a replacement confirmed in the Senate,” his office said in a statement. In 1876, the Senate held that it could try a former official, and a resignation might therefore not end the matter.
A Democratic Congress can also investigate without impeaching. Democrats have promised to look into Hegseth’s firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the most senior US military officer, and other senior leaders, Reuters reported. Massie made the same point in his statement, calling his effort “a much gentler version of what’s coming”. “They will hold hearings and trials,” it said.
