US Republicans quash impeachment bid against Hegseth

All right. The U.S. House of Representatives has been voting on a process to try to impeach the U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. There has been a vote right now. I want to bring in Al Jazeera's White House correspondent, Kimberly Halkett, who is on Capitol Hill for us. So, Kimberly, please, if you would, this is happening right now. There's a vote underway right now. There's just been another vote. Can you help us make sense of what the previous vote was, what the vote that we're seeing on our screen is right now, and where things stand? Well, don't worry about the vote that's happening right now. This is a vote about expanding retirement options for teachers and non-profit employees. The drama is over. What we have been focused on here at Al Jazeera is the vote that took place just previous to the one that is underway. And here's why. Because it could have had tremendous ramifications. For the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, the result of that vote was 211 Republicans voted to kill articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth and to refer it to the Judiciary Committee that is controlled by Republicans. So in other words, the headline is the effort by the Kentucky Republican Thomas Massey to begin the process of impeaching the defense secretary is currently stalled. In other words, it's a In other words, it has not moved forward to an impeachment vote. And here's why this matters. Because Republicans currently control the House of Representatives, effectively blocking this bill and referring it to the Judiciary Committee means that The Republicans who control that committee are the ones that would have to decide to hold hearings, to conduct investigations. And as long as they're in control, that is almost unlikely, next to impossible. So as it stands right now, Scott, the danger of Pete Hegseth having to have extra scrutiny, a trial potentially in the Senate, all of that is on hold. As we have been reporting on Al Jazeera, Republicans won't hold on to these two chambers, the lower House of Representatives or the upper U.S. Senate, come January. And come January, everything could change once Democrats are in control. So, Kimberly, how does the process work at that point? Does somebody have to reintroduce the articles of impeachment with this massive Democratic majority incoming in the House of Representatives, also in the Senate as well? Or would these articles of impeachment go to that committee and then they're still alive in some way? Well, they could be reintroduced by Democrats come January. If that happens, then there would be a vote on whether or not to move forward and impeach the defense secretary. But even if that does take place, once Democrats are in control of the House of Representatives, he can still remain in the job. What would remove him from office is if there is a trial held in the U.S. Senate. And there would still be a high bar to remove him from office, but with Democrats in control, it becomes much easier, because what you need is 67 out of the 100 members of the U.S. Senate to vote in favor of removing Pete Hegseth. And again, with Democrats in control, this becomes much easier. But they will have to work with Republicans even come January if— This all proceeds that far in order to accomplish that. What I should point out, though, is that politically all of this is bad news for the U.S. president, because what these articles of impeachment were about is not only the decision by the defense secretary to wage war against Iran, but also the attacks that moved Nicolas Maduro from office in Venezuela. And the civilian casualties, not just in Iran, but also on attacks on drug boats off the coast of the United States, these are still issues that Democrats care about. So expect that these investigations will take place once Democrats control both houses of — the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate come January. In fact, we know from Hakeem Jeffries, he said that he is going to do the investigations, Follow the facts and... Apply the law. The Democrats are not there on their own. They're going to end up with 54, maybe 56 seats in the Senate. You need two-thirds, that's 67. Are there any indications right now that there might be some Republicans who might think about going along with this impeachment of Pete Hegseth? I just read that John Thune, the Senate Majority Leader, would vote to impeach if it came to the Senate. Obviously, it's not going to at the moment, but are there any indications that there are some Republicans that could break rank at this stage? Absolutely. Look, this vote that we just had, it's notable that Thomas Massey, who introduced these articles of impeachment, was the only Republican that was siding with Democrats in order to try and keep this process going. But momentum matters. And we've already had this overwhelming message from voters that they are opposed to the Iran war at the ballot box in the midterm congressional elections. Republicans are watching that very carefully. The U.S. president is watching that carefully. That's why we had a rare sign of contrition from him just a couple of days ago in that 60 Minutes interview where he said, look it, I would do it all again, but I know people don't like the war. Republicans are listening to that, and so while you're right, the bar is high in the U.S. Senate needing 67 votes of Democrats. As well as some Republicans, if there is the sense that there are enough people in their constituencies that are really unhappy and want them to side with Democrats, it is very possible that it's a snowball that can't stop and this could move forward. So just the fact that this is being taken up, even though it didn't pass right now, is bad not just for Pete Hegseth, but also the president. Yeah, I suspect we might be talking about this for the next couple of months. All right, Kimberly, these votes in Congress, they are complicated. We appreciate you holding this hand through it all. Thank you.