Pete Hegseth expected to face House impeachment vote this week

There is a new political showdown unfolding in Washington for President Donald Trump's administration. And this time, the challenge is coming from within his own party. Earlier today, Republican Representative Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The CBC's Mark Carcassonne is following the latest developments and joins us now. So, Mark, this is shaping up to be the president's first test since Republicans suffered major losses in last week midterms. We should point out this is a Republican representative, though, that's bringing this forward. It is, Andrea. And it's a challenge that maybe if we were having this discussion a year ago, we would think it's a pretty easy challenge for the president and the Republicans to overcome. But right now, given the atmosphere in Congress and in the United States, Knowing that the war in Iran, according to the president and the vice president themselves even, and many Republican Party members, so heavily cost the Republicans in the last set of midterms. And there are many Republicans. Aside from Thomas Massey calling for Pete Hegseth to be moved aside as the Secretary of War, this is very much a challenge for the president and the Republican Party. So Thomas Massey introduced these eight articles of impeachment against the Secretary of War. This is the second time he's done it. He did it again in September, alleging that he broke laws and violated the Constitution. Among the laws he claims that Pete Hegseth broke is the 1973 War Powers Act. He says that they took action without congressional consent, And that is why he is pursuing impeachment of the The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. Now, keep in mind, the Democrats have not taken control of Congress yet. So right now, the Republicans still have a majority in the House of Representatives, where this vote is set to take place later this week, perhaps Wednesday or Thursday, we're hearing. However, members of the Republican Party... Many of them openly in public are so angry with Pete Hegseth right now that it is conceivable, at least, that they may side with the Democrats on this vote to impeach Pete Hegseth. Here's Thomas Massie, the House Republican, talking about why he is moving forward with these articles. I don't know if we have enough votes. I have no idea. I haven't spent time on the phone calling people. I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do. Everybody gets to take this vote. I suspect there may be members of Congress who want to put a little daylight between themselves in this war or themselves in this administration who survived their election, not just what I call the Retirement Caucus, whose membership swelled on November 3rd. I'm talking about the people who are coming back next Congress. And then in two years, they're going to have to answer for a war that's gotten even worse. And if, God forbid, the Secretary of Defense is still in charge of it, they're going to own all of his misfortune and misdeeds. So he's clearly looking forward to when the Democrats take control of Congress. Speaking of Democrats, it's clear that this is one Republican initiative that they can certainly rely on Democrat votes for. Here is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries talking about the impeachment measures and how he feels about it. I'm a hard yes, as I've made clear on the impeachment resolution. Pete Hegseth has abused his power, undermined America's national security, and he's the architect Of the reckless and costly failed war of choice in Iran, which has skyrocketed gas prices on everyday Americans, made the country less safe and Iran is stronger now than they were before Operation Epic Failure, led by Pete Hegseth, began. Now, again, it's by no means a sure shot, but there's a chance that this could go through. And if, excuse me, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is impeached, it's it's not over for him at this point. It's not like he gets kicked out of the position. It then moves on to the Senate, which by that point will be Democrat controlled. Most likely they hold a full on trial, witnesses, documents, everything. And then this will span the old Congress and the new Congress. Yes, that's what you're saying. This whole process into January, at least and further beyond. If, through that trial, Pete Hegseth is convicted... Only then will he lose the post of Secretary of War. However, the Democrats would need a two-thirds majority on that. They don't have that. But again, it's conceivable that Republicans, even in the Senate, may be so upset with Pete Hegseth and the war in Iran that they might vote with Democrats. But the Democrats would need to bring over about 20 Republicans and independents to make that happen. That's a big number. And, Mark, is anybody speaking up in support of Secretary Pete Hegseth? It seems a few, at least the president is and the secretary of state. Yeah, some very high level Republicans certainly speaking on behalf of Pete Hegseth on 60 Minutes this past weekend. And then just within the last hour, President Donald Trump has come out publicly again and said that, yes, I have Pete Hegseth's back. He's doing a good job. He keeps saying he's won two wars and he's considering the war in Iran as a win. He also considers the... offense on Venezuela, the one-day offense to be a war which Pete Hegseth has won. So he keeps saying that Pete Hegseth has won two wars, doing a good job. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as you mentioned, also backing him up today, saying along the same lines that he's done a good job. Pete Hegseth himself not saying much about it today, but looking ahead to when he will, which is not far from now. Oh, we're not worried about that. I'll tell you this. Actually, I hope all of you will join us. We're going to do a press conference tomorrow morning at the Pentagon on that very topic. So I'll save my remarks there. I hope you'll all come. Hegseth has commented on this previously. He put out a video on social media last week comparing himself basically to President Donald Trump, who twice had an impeachment process against him. But overall, he says all of this is just noise. It's Democrats trying to exert power. He calls it political theater. Mark, thank you. CBC's Mark Harkers-Hall.