Massie pushes surprise impeachment vote of Hegseth — overshadowing a Democrat’s bid to impeach Trump

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House Democrats were privately dreading a politically charged — but purely symbolic — vote on impeaching President Donald Trump triggered by one of their own members.

Then came something unexpected.

Just hours before that vote, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie surprised his colleagues with a push to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a stunning act of intraparty warfare that deepens the rogue congressman’s rift with Trump and GOP leaders.

Massie’s push to impeach Hegseth, like the Democratic push to impeach Trump, is doomed to fail. Yet both votes have created headaches for their respective party leaders, neither of whom want to spend the final days in session before the midterms dealing with impeachment drama that exposes intraparty rifts.

Massie told reporters Tuesday that he did not inform party leaders of his plans to introduce the articles of impeachment against Hegseth.

Republicans do not want to watch Massie make history as the first member of Congress to try to impeach a Cabinet member of the same party — particularly after he lost his primary to a Trump-backed opponent this spring.

Democrats, meanwhile, are irritated that their colleague — Rep. Al Green, who also lost his primary in May — is forcing the impeachment vote at a time when Republicans would otherwise be facing pressure on tariffs, gas prices and AI. Their moods lifted, however, once Massie took to the floor to announce his intention to force a vote to impeach Hegseth.

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“Just when you think Al Green screws us, Massie turns around and gives it right back to the Rs,” one Democratic aide quipped.

Just ahead of a seven-week recess, the House is now confronting dueling impeachment headaches — both from members who won’t be in Congress next year and who have proved uncontrollable by party leaders.

The House is set to hold a vote to table — or block — the Trump impeachment resolution Tuesday afternoon. It’s not clear when a vote will be held on the Hegseth impeachment measure, but it could take place this week. Party leaders must hold a vote within the coming days — unless they decide to send the House home early.

Massie told reporters Tuesday afternoon, “I didn’t give anybody heads-up because when they found out I was doing the Epstein discharge petition, they canceled two weeks of Congress, and I think if they found out I was going to do this, they might have canceled even more days.”

Democrats, in particular, have a tricky political calculus for how to handle the impeachment conversation. The party has impeached Trump twice already when they held the majority in his first term.

But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership team have been careful to keep their political focus on the rising cost of living. Democrats’ path back into the majority will need to come through battleground seats that Trump has previously won — and they do not want to alienate independent and GOP voters with impeachment rhetoric. But Democrats also know their base detests Trump, with many voters eager to see him impeached a third time.

Jeffries and his leadership team said in a joint statement Monday night that they will vote “present” — rather than an up or down vote — on a procedural measure related to Green’s impeachment push.

“Impeachment is a sacred constitutional vehicle designed to hold a corrupt executive accountable for abuse of power, breaking the law and violating the public trust,” they said, noting the process requires “comprehensive investigative” work to lay out the evidence and convince the American public, which they said Green has not done.

CNN’s Lauren Fox and Ellis Kim contributed to this report.

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众议院民主党人私下里担心，由他们自己的一名成员发起的弹劾唐纳德·特朗普总统的投票，虽然具有政治色彩，但纯粹是象征性的。

然后，意想不到的事情发生了。

就在投票前几个小时，共和党众议员托马斯·马西出人意料地推​​动弹劾国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯，这一惊人的党内斗争行为加深了这位特立独行的国会议员与特朗普和共和党领导人之间的裂痕。

马西推动弹劾赫格塞斯的努力，就像民主党推动弹劾特朗普一样，注定会失败。然而，这两起弹劾案都给各自党派的领导人带来了麻烦，他们都不希望在期中选举前的最后几天里，把时间浪费在暴露党内分歧的弹劾闹剧上。

马西周二告诉记者，他没有将自己提出弹劾赫格塞斯的条款的计划告知党内领导人。

共和党人不想看到马西成为历史上第一个试图弹劾同党内阁成员的国会议员——尤其是在今年春天他输给特朗普支持的对手之后。

与此同时，民主党人对他们的同僚——同样在五月份党内初选中落败的众议员阿尔·格林——在共和党本应面临关税、油价和人工智能等问题压力之际，强行推进弹劾投票感到恼火。然而，当马西在议会发言宣布他打算强行推动对赫格塞斯的弹劾投票时，他们的情绪有所缓和。

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一位民主党助手打趣道：“你以为艾尔·格林坑了我们，结果马西又反过来坑了共和党人一把。”

就在即将开始为期七周的休会期之前，众议院现在面临着双重弹劾难题——既有明​​年将不再担任国会议员的，也有已被证明不受党内领导人控制的弹劾议员。

众议院将于周二下午就搁置或阻止特朗普弹劾决议进行投票。目前尚不清楚何时就赫格塞斯弹劾案进行投票，但可能在本周内进行。除非两党领导人决定提前结束众议院的休会程序，否则他们必须在未来几天内举行投票。

马西周二下午告诉记者：“我没有提前通知任何人，因为当他们发现我要为爱泼斯坦的免责请愿书做准备时，他们取消了国会两周的会议，我想如果他们发现我要做这件事，他们可能会取消更多天的会议。”

尤其是民主党人，在如何处理弹劾问题上有着一套棘手的政治考量。该党在特朗普第一任期内曾两次弹劾他，当时他们占据多数席位。

但众议院少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯及其领导团队一直谨慎地将政治重心放在不断上涨的生活成本上。民主党要想重夺多数席位，就必须拿下特朗普此前赢得的几个关键摇摆选区——他们不希望因为弹劾言论而疏远独立选民和共和党选民。但民主党人也清楚，他们的支持者憎恨特朗普，许多选民渴望看到他第三次被弹劾。

杰弗里斯和他的领导团队周一晚间发表联合声明称，他们将对与格林弹劾行动相关的程序性措施投“弃权票”，而不是投赞成票或反对票。

他们表示：“弹劾是一项神圣的宪法机制，旨在追究腐败行政官员滥用职权、违法犯罪和违反公众信任的责任。”他们指出，这一过程需要“全面的调查”工作来摆出证据并说服美国公众，而格林并没有做到这一点。

CNN的Lauren Fox和Ellis Kim对本报道亦有贡献。