House votes to block motion to impeach Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth

[0:00] Let's bring in both Sahil Kapoor, who's on Capitol Hill, and Courtney Kuby, who is also on Capitol Hill for us, covering all this. [0:06] Sahil, I'm going to start with you, actually, if you can sort of call an audible with me here, because I understand they have just gaveled the vote. [0:12] Is that the case? [0:14] That appears to be the case, Hallie. [0:16] I'm watching on my phone here, just trying to pull this up. [0:20] This appears. [0:21] Let's listen in for a second, then, if you need to. [0:22] Hang on. [0:27] Okay. [0:28] Looks like it was, Sahil. [0:29] Hallie, I can confirm the vote is called. [0:32] It was 211 to 204 Republicans succeeded at ripping this off the House floor and referring it to the Judiciary Committee. [0:41] So what that means is that this resolution, this eight-article impeachment by Tom Massey, will not proceed on the House floor. [0:48] It will be removed from the House floor and instead go to the House Judiciary Committee, which, by the way, controlled by Jim Jordan, just elected minority leader, and he's a vociferous ally of President Trump. [0:58] He's not going to let this move anywhere forward. [1:00] Republicans still control the Judiciary Committee, and they have a large majority there, so there's no reason to expect it to come out of committee and go back to the floor. [1:07] For all intents and purposes, this matter is likely closed for the remainder of this Congress. [1:14] So, in other words, Hegseth escapes without being impeached at this particular moment on this particular Tuesday night. [1:20] Is that a fair TLDR? [1:21] Hegseth escapes without even a vote on the floor of the House on an up-or-down impeachment. [1:28] This is a procedural tactic that Republicans have successfully used to prevent the House from voting on that direct question, Hallie. [1:35] So what? [1:36] It prevents Republican members from having to, like, walk the plank on a vote like this? [1:41] Yes, that's exactly right. [1:42] It prevents House Republicans from having to cast a substantive up-or-down on whether Pete Hegseth should be impeached and removed. [1:50] Many of them were well-prepared to vote against the impeachment resolution. [1:54] Even some of Hegseth's critics, as you and I have been discussing in the last hour, like Don Bacon, who don't believe he should be in that job, did not think this was the right approach or the right path to try to get him out of it, Hallie. [2:05] Republican Congressman Thomas Massey has long been a thorn in the side of President Trump's. [2:10] President Trump backed his primary challenger. [2:12] Massey lost that primary. [2:14] He is on his way out of Congress. [2:16] Does the congressman have any recourse here, Sahil? [2:18] Does he get a take-two on this push, or is this it? [2:22] Probably not. [2:23] If he introduces the same resolution, the House could just approach it the exact same way. [2:28] In fact, I'm not even sure they would be required to vote twice on the exact same thing. [2:32] This, for all intents and purposes, addresses that question. [2:34] He introduced a privilege resolution, which he's still allowed to do because he's still a member of Congress until January 3rd. [2:40] But, again, for all intents and purposes, unless something changes, unless he introduces a new resolution, this likely is the end of that matter for as far as the Massey resolution is concerned. [2:52] Hang tight for a second, Salha. [2:53] I want to go to Courtney Kuby, who people, if you're having a moment where you're going, why is Courtney Kuby live at the Capitol and not live at the Pentagon? [2:59] Court, that's because this is where it's happening, right? [3:01] This is where your beat is taking you. [3:04] And Hegseth, earlier today, was clear he believes this is a political stunt. [3:08] But he also disputed on the substance each of the charges against him here. [3:13] Again, the charges that he's essentially illegally ordered war. [3:18] That's right. [3:19] There were eight articles of impeachment here, and they dealt with several different things. [3:22] I mean, one of the main ones that's getting attention is the war with Iran. [3:26] So the articles argued that the secretary was engaged in illegal orders because he was continuing to tell the U.S. military to engage in combat operations against Iran. [3:37] Now, that was just one piece of it. [3:39] There was another one that dealt with the idea of extrajudicial killing. [3:43] And that was regarding the boat strikes of alleged narco traffickers in the Southern Pacific and in the Caribbean. [3:52] It argued that, in fact, there was a judicial process that existed for crimes on the high seas. [3:58] And that by Secretary Hegseth ordering strikes on those boats, he was essentially circumventing that process, at one point even saying that he was acting as judge, jury, and executioner for the people on those boats. [4:09] But it's not just that. [4:10] There was also an allegation that he was interfering with the way the U.S. military targets civilians or does not attempt to avoid civilians in targeting, in warfare, [4:21] alleging that, in fact, there were civilian casualties that were a direct result of policies that were implemented by Secretary Hegseth. [4:28] And then finally, there was one that was about free speech. [4:31] And that dealt largely with Secretary Hegseth's attack on Senator Mark Kelly and other members of Congress who spoke out, [4:39] made a video that said that that encouraged members of the military not to follow an illegal order earlier this year, Hallie. [4:46] Court, this is all happening as Republicans maintain control of Congress for now, obviously. [4:52] It was a Republican congressman who brought these articles. [4:55] Our team's telling us he was the only Republican to vote with Democrats here. [4:59] But when Democrats take control of the House come January, end of the Senate, [5:04] is the defense secretary prepared for the potential for investigations into him and for what may come when Democrats control both those chambers? [5:15] They are. [5:15] But here's the thing, Hallie. [5:17] If you just look at how this defense secretary has treated Capitol Hill for the last nearly two years now, [5:24] he has been dismissive. [5:25] He has been openly argumentative with members of the Senate Armed Services and House Armed Services in open committee. [5:31] He has refused to provide them information. [5:34] One of the allegations against him and one of the reasons that, frankly, is not popular, [5:38] even among some Republicans on Capitol Hill is the fact that they argue he has not been transparent about them with some of the things that we just discussed. [5:46] Specifically, there are arguments about the war with Iran, that he has not been transparent about the cost. [5:52] It is taken on the U.S. munitions stockpile, the real plan going forward, just the kinds of normal information that members of Congress often ask of various institutions in the U.S. government. [6:06] But the Pentagon is just refusing and has refused to provide. [6:09] That's one of the reasons that we have seen Republicans in recent months quietly turn on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. [6:16] I mean, that being said, if, in fact, this the articles of impeachment had passed through the House, had moved on to the Senate, [6:22] it's really not clear in this current Congress or even in January when the Congress go that the Senate flips to the Democratic control. [6:30] It's still not clear if they would have actually voted to convict him here. [6:33] It would require 67 votes. [6:36] Courtney, QB, thanks. [6:37] With that, we'll go back to Sahil because, you know, court's making the political point here. [6:40] I wonder if on the Democratic side, the lawmakers that you're talking to are bracing for what sounds likely to be a contentious relationship with the defense secretary for the foreseeable future. [6:50] Oh, 100 percent. He is definitely going to be one of their investigative targets. [6:55] They have very little respect for him. [6:58] They do not like the way he's handled his job as defense secretary. [7:02] They do not like the way he's prosecuted the war in Iran. [7:06] They have criticisms of how he is in the articles of impeachment of Tom Massey, which many Democrats agree with, [7:12] tried to silence free speech and remove the press corps from the Pentagon, [7:16] having essentially a friendly set of folks around him rather than adversarial questions coming at him. [7:21] There's a long list of grievances they have with the defense secretary, [7:24] and he'll be part of the investigations that the Democrats pursue. [7:28] Now, the interesting thing there, Hallie, and you just touched on this, [7:31] what happens if the administration is not cooperative, [7:33] because usually there is some back and forth. [7:36] There's some negotiation generally between a House majority of one party [7:41] and an administration of the other party when investigations happen. [7:43] Usually what they do is, if the administration is totally uncooperative, [7:48] they refer to contempt of Congress prosecutions, and that goes to the DOJ, [7:53] which is also run by Donald Trump's allies, of course. [7:55] So it'll be interesting to see how the next two years pan out here. [7:59] Interesting, to say the least. [8:01] Sahil Kapoor, thank you very much.