2026 US Midterm Election Results: Will Pete Hegseth Be Impeached? Why He’s Under Scrutiny After Republican Vote | Today’s news
US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party was defeated in the US midterm elections on November 3, but the burden of the historic loss may fall on several leaders, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky representative, told CNN he plans to call for a vote on Hegseth’s impeachment when Congress returns next week — and several GOP sources have been quoted as saying they expect it to pass.
Later, in a post on X, Massie said there was one option in which he would not reintroduce articles of impeachment: “Hegseth resigns.”
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Republican Representative Thomas Massie said he plans to bring up a vote to impeach Hegseth when Congress returns. The article says the House could vote as early as next week, but impeachment has yet to happen.
Some Republicans say Hegseth urged President Trump to attack Iran without an exit strategy and exaggerated how quickly the U.S. could win. They also accuse him of supporting further escalation when the war and its economic effects angered voters.
Trump has said publicly that Hegseth is doing a very good job and that a replacement is not being considered. But reports cited in the article say Trump has asked advisers about Hegseth’s future, and some sources believe he could still be replaced.
Democrats have promised oversight of Hegseth’s handling of the Pentagon, including the Iran war and the removal of senior military officers. The article also says the scrutiny could cover his Ukraine policy and US strikes on ships suspected of drug smuggling.
Massie said he would not reintroduce the articles of impeachment if Hegseth resigned. The article does not say that Hegseth resigned.
The House could vote as soon as next week to impeach the Pentagon’s top leader, CNN reported, citing sources.
Massie noted that Trump continues to argue for continuing the war in Iran, regardless of the political and economic price paid at home.
“You don’t screw up an election with just one issue,” Massie told CNN, adding, “It was completely avoidable if they had just gotten out of the cult following of Donald Trump.”
2026 US Midterm Election Results: Why Pete Hegseth Under Scrutiny?
Democrats won control of both houses of Congress in midterm elections that reflected voter anger over the Iran war.
While Trump said it was “largely true” that the Iran war was blamed for the Republicans’ looming midterm loss, Vice President JD Vance specifically said in X’s post, “The reason we lost is the war.”
After the polling debacle, many Republican lawmakers and allies, worried about the election loss, quickly moved to place the blame for the election results on Hegseth.
Behind the scenes, they argued, Hegseth played a major role in persuading Trump to attack Iran without an exit strategy — and without a plan to handle the inevitable political fallout, CNN reported.
A vocal cheerleader for the war, Hegseth conveyed the U.S. ability to win a conflict quickly and easily, several Republicans argued to CNN, describing on condition of anonymity why many in their party are now turning against the defense secretary.
They accused him of continuing to advocate escalation, despite little indication that the continued bombing has brought Iran closer to capitulation.
They said the conflict in West Asia has since turned into a quagmire, exacerbating the U.S. affordability crisis and fueling a midterm voter revolt against the GOP.
“The pivot is beginning” about the war and Hegseth, a former senior Pentagon official told CNN. “It was primarily a War Department-led effort because you decided to take military action to resolve a foreign policy matter,” the official added.
Loyalty to Trump
The CNN report added that GOP leaders — and many within their ranks — are reluctant to directly blame Trump for their woes, even as House and Senate GOP strategists “privately acknowledged” that the party’s problems went beyond the war and caused losses at 2008 levels that will take years to reverse.
Even among House Republicans who survived Tuesday’s onslaught, there is zero expectation that they will suddenly break away from President Trump with two years left in his term, CNN analyzed.
But that loyalty does not extend to Hegseth, the defense secretary who has made few friends on Capitol Hill since taking command of the Pentagon.
According to CNN, House Republicans are expected to vote to outright reject the defense secretary within days.
U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican, told CBS Tuesday night that Hegseth faces a “showdown” and his strained relationship with lawmakers is undermining the Trump administration’s push for a $1.5 trillion defense package in Congress.
However, Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth would continue to drive Trump’s agenda and that the Pentagon “followed the law.”
“Secretary Hegseth will not back down or be deterred by politicians who seek to score partisan points or launch bogus investigations where no wrongdoing has occurred,” Parnell said.
Will Trump fire Pete?
Trump endorsed Pete Hegseth on Wednesday despite efforts to inflame the defense secretary around him.
The president’s own confidence in his defense secretary has so far not wavered, even as he continued to poll allies about his performance, multiple White House officials told CNN.
Asked if he was considering replacing Hegseth, whom he described as a champion of the war, Trump told reporters: “No, I think he’s doing a very good job.”
But sources told Reuters that Trump could still replace Hegseth when Republicans assess their losses.
One Trump aide said Hegseth “could be on the chopping block” over the war. “Someone is going to be accused of this, and you know it’s not going to be him (Trump),” the aide said.
Sources told CBS News that President Trump has been asking advisers around him and on the phone whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should stay in his job.
Some White House advisers also predicted that some of the blame for the GOP’s midterm losses would be leveled at Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, both of whom played large roles in the Iran war.
What can Democrats do next?
It comes as Democrats have vowed to investigate Hegseth and his handling of the Pentagon, which aides said could include everything from his handling of the Iran war to his purge of top military officers, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He could also face scrutiny over his Ukraine policy and US military strikes on ships suspected of drug smuggling in Latin American waters, which some Democrats say could amount to war crimes.
Representative Adam Smith, a Democrat expected to lead the House Armed Services Committee next year, has promised vigorous oversight of everything from the Iran war to what he called the erosion of the “apolitical foundation of the armed forces.”
