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Pentagon chief Hegseth faces impeachment vote over Iran war waged without Congress

10 November 2026 · Algeria Now

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth could face an impeachment vote in the House of Representatives as early as this week, after Republican congressman Thomas Massie moved to revive a set of eight articles accusing him of waging war on Iran without the authorization of Congress.

The 34-page resolution, first filed in September, seeks Hegseth’s removal from office and a ban on his holding any future federal post. Massie had been expected to refile it on Monday as a privileged resolution, which forces the House leadership to act within two legislative days. A first attempt stalled when the Republican leadership cancelled the last session day before the midterm elections.

Eight charges, from Iran to the Caribbean

Three of the articles accuse Hegseth of conducting hostilities against Iran without congressional consent, in breach of the US Constitution and the 1973 War Powers Resolution. The war, launched by the United States and Israel on 28 February, has never been authorized by Congress.

Another article concerns the strike that hit the Shajarah Tayyebeh primary school in Minab, in southern Iran, on the first day of the war. Amnesty International says at least 170 people were killed, most of them children, and has held the United States responsible, calling for the attack to be investigated as a possible war crime. The other charges cover the lethal strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, which had killed close to 200 people by late May, the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and the Pentagon’s pursuit of Senator Mark Kelly over a video urging troops to refuse illegal orders.

Hegseth dismissed the charges as “sham” articles, and President Donald Trump has said he would stand by his defence secretary even if he were impeached.

The numbers in Congress

A simple majority is enough to impeach in the House. With the Republican majority still narrow until the new Congress sits in January, three Republican votes added to those of every Democrat would suffice. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has called himself a “hard yes”, while several Republicans remain undecided. The Republican leadership could instead try to table the resolution. Even if the House approves it, conviction requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate, which remains under Republican control until January and is unlikely to reach it.

If impeached, Hegseth would be only the third cabinet secretary in US history to suffer that fate, after William Belknap in 1876 and Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024. Whatever the outcome, the vote turns months of unease in Congress into a formal challenge to a war that both the United Nations Charter and the US Constitution subject to strict legal limits.

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