USA after the midterms | Republicans avert impeachment proceedings against Hegseth

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Photo: Nathan Howard/FR171771 AP/dpa Washington.  Republicans in the US House of Representatives have averted impeachment proceedings against US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. MPs voted 211 to 204 on Tuesday to refer a motion to initiate so-called impeachment proceedings back to the committee. The application was submitted on Monday by Trump-critical Republican Congressman Thomas Massie. After the Republicans' election defeat in the midterms, Hegseth is under massive pressure, especially because of the unpopular Iran war.

The Democrats who won the congressional election supported the impeachment process. Since the US Parliament will still meet in its old composition until the end of the year and the Republicans have a majority in both chambers, Massie would also have needed the votes of a few other Republicans to initiate the process. The US broadcaster NBC reported that no other Republican had openly signaled Massie's support for his move.

A vote by the Chamber of Congress on the application is therefore off the table for the time being. If the Democrats gain a majority in Congress after their victory in the midterm elections next year, they can initiate new impeachment proceedings. 

US President Donald Trump was given a boost by the failure of Massie's initiative shortly after his crushing defeat in the congressional election last week. He described the averted impeachment as an "acquittal for a great American patriot" and emphasized that the impeachment attempt was "unfounded." 

After the request, Trump immediately backed his "Minister of War" Hegseth and declared that he had done a "very good job" and "won" two wars. "He gave the orders," emphasized the US President. He called Massie a “loser.”  

With a view to the impeachment attempt on Tuesday, Hegseth himself spoke in his first press conference in around six months of a "show trial against the president and his secretary of war" and of a "political spectacle" that was doomed to failure.

Massie accuses Hegseth of misconduct in eight areas. The 46-year-old pushed forward the war against Iran without congressional approval and exceeded his powers as defense minister. The Republican representative also accuses the former Fox News host of the “extrajudicial killing” of suspected drug smugglers through air strikes on their ships in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific.

Hegseth is one of the most controversial ministers in Trump's cabinet. He caused the biggest stir last year with the so-called chat group affair. He shared secret military information via the cell phone messenger Signal, including with his wife and a journalist who accidentally connected. After the Signal affair, he severely restricted journalists' access to the Pentagon, which led to dozens of protesting reporters leaving.

During the Iran War, Hegseth had to defend himself against allegations that he was responsible for the attack on a school in which, according to Iranian sources, at least 170 people were killed. The Democrats are therefore accusing the minister of “war crimes”. 

Most recently, Hegseth's announcement that he would broadcast live the execution of the Fort Hood assassin Nidal Hasan by a military firing squad, scheduled for early December, caused outrage. After a public outcry, Trump canceled the planned live broadcast.  Agencies/nd

With us, no one has to pay to be informed. Sounds like a bad business model? It is too. But independent journalism and participation for everyone are more important to us than profit. Journalism still costs money: research, printing and all the people who do it. That's why we depend on you. We need 300,000 euros by the end of the year.

Donate once or regularly, every amount counts. So that nd remains.