Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) abruptly sent members of the House of Representatives home today until after the November midterm elections in a desperate attempt to forestall a vote on the impeachment of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who is under heavy criticism from both Democrats and Republicans for his mishandling of the war with Iran.
All votes scheduled for Thursday — including one on articles of impeachment against Hegesth filed by GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky — were immediately canceled.
Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin reported, “BREAKING: House Speaker Mike Johnson tells reporters tomorrow’s House votes are cancelled & the House will likely leave after votes tonight and go on recess until after the November midterms.”
“This, after 100+ House Dems called for him to cancel the recess to deal w/ ‘AI crisis’.
Washington Sun reporter Reese Gordon noted that Johnson and members of the House GOP leadership are afraid of a vote on Hegseth, writing, “Some in leadership want to avoid a vote on the Hegseth impeachment set to come up tomorrow since its privileged, but its unclear if procedurally that’s possible.”
ABC News is reporting that Massie filed the impeachment resolution as “privileged” which prevents House leaders from quietly shelving it, meaning a vote on impeachment would have been required within two days. By shutting down the House, Johnson avoids the embarrassment of seeing how many votes would be cast to dump Hegseth from his post at the Pentagon.
“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,” Massie said in response to Johnson’s move.
“Why today? Because Speaker Johnson has basically canceled the rest of Congress until the elections,” Massie added.
If the midterm elections go as predicted and Democrats retake control of the House and Senate, there’s a better than even chance Hegseth will indeed be impeached and even removed from his job.
After that, maybe we can also impeach and remove Pete’s boss, who is the biggest threat of all.
