WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Republicans in the US House of Representatives blocked an effort on Tuesday to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, winning a reprieve for the polarizing Pentagon chief before Democrats take control of Congress next year and possibly try again.
The vote on a procedural motion came just hours after Hegseth blasted efforts to impeach him as a farce and delivered a defiant defense of his record at the helm of the US military, winning praise from President Donald Trump.
The chamber voted 211 to 204 in favor of a motion to refer eight articles of impeachment to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, a move that the sponsor of the impeachment push, US Representative Thomas Massie, warned would kill it.
Massie, an outgoing Kentucky Republican, had hoped to draw votes from Republicans upset with Hegseth's policies and wary of the unpopularity of the eight-month-old Iran war but no other Republicans joined him. The US-Israeli led conflict has never been approved by Congress, which is the only branch of government constitutionally permitted to declare war.
Democrats had voiced strong support for the impeachment articles, which accuse Hegseth of the "high crimes and misdemeanors" of illegally ordering the military to wage war in Iran and Yemen, attack boats in the Caribbean Sea and capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January. But 11 Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, did not vote.
If eight of them had, the procedural measure would have been defeated, paving the way for a full House impeachment vote.
Ian Krager, a spokesperson for Pelosi, said she had missed the vote because she had returned to San Francisco for an annual event to honor veterans, but would have voted against the procedural measure.
Trump cheered the results in a social media post, saying the effort to impeach Hegseth "has miserably FAILED!" He wrote that Hegseth's performance on Iran, Venezuela and other issues "led to the EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot."
Hegseth would have been the first US defense secretary to be impeached. The last time any civilian leader of the US military was impeached was in 1876, when William Belknap held the title "secretary of war."
Hegseth calls himself secretary of war, part of his effort to rebrand a military he said was too weak and "woke" when he took office last year. Trump cannot change the name of the Defense Department without approval from Congress.
IRAN WAR ANGER
Voter anger over the Iran war, which has settled into an effective stalemate focused on securing the Strait of Hormuz, helped Democrats win control of Congress in last week's midterm elections.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday found a majority of Americans want the newly elected Democratic-majority US Congress, which takes office in January, to act to end the war with Iran once and for all.
Although Vice President JD Vance has publicly questioned the war and blamed it for the Republicans' midterm rout, he voiced support for Hegseth on Tuesday.
"This isn't about Iran, this is about the fact that Pete took on the bureaucracy at the Pentagon," Vance wrote on social media.
Before the vote, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Monday: "Pete Hegseth has abused his power, undermined America's national security, and he's the architect of the reckless and costly failed war of choice in Iran."
Hegseth has repeatedly defended the conflict, calling Trump courageous and saying Iran's military has been left in ruins. He also said his orders to US forces were lawful, despite Massie's accusations of "high crimes and misdemeanors".
"History will judge the Iran war quite differently than the conventional wisdom right now," Hegseth said on Tuesday at his first Pentagon briefing in six months.
Jeffries said he would talk to members about whether to mount a new impeachment effort in the next Congress. "We'll have that conversation at the appropriate time," he said.
A Democratic-led push to impeach Hegseth could be far more intense, with lawmakers calling in top brass to testify, including generals and admirals fired by Hegseth who have remained silent so far. Hegseth, who has railed against diversity efforts at the Pentagon, fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is Black, and the Navy's top admiral, a woman, among others.
In such an effort, Democrats could also raise other issues of concern to voters including Pentagon policy toward Ukraine and the US military's strikes on suspected drug trafficking boats in Caribbean and Pacific waters.
Some Republicans say Hegseth's strained relations with Congress are becoming a political liability as the Trump administration seeks a huge increase in the military's budget to $1.5 trillion from $950 billion.
Massie said he was disappointed by the vote, comparing Republicans to passengers content to go down with the Titanic.
"They know it's a sinking ship but committed to stay on board," he said.
