U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) speaks with members on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 23, 2025. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduced a resolution Tuesday to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing him of defying Congress and illegally continuing the U.S. war in Iran, among other crimes. However, one target of Hegseth’s alleged abuses unleashed a devastating “I told you so” on the defense secretary.
In addition to the defying Congress over the Iran War, Massie’s eight-article resolution also targets Hegseth over U.S. military operations in Venezuela and Yemen, and accuses him of illegally directing the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro without congressional authorization. It also accuses him of carrying out extrajudicial killings.
“Secretary Hegseth abused the powers entrusted to him as secretary of defense by subordinating the constitutional limits on the use of military force and the laws governing the conduct of hostilities to his own policy objectives,” said Massie, adding that Hegseth has shown “profound disregard” for the impact of U.S. military operations on civilians.
In his resolution, Massie also pointed out that Hegseth “weaponized the Department of Defense to retaliate against and intimidate Senator Mark Kelly” after Kelly appeared in a video addressed to members of the military reminding them that “our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.”
At the time, the video pertained to an “unlawful strike campaign against vessels suspected of narcotics trafficking in international waters,” said Massie, but Kelly said Hegseth would have done well to heed the video warning himself.
“I think the real ironic thing about Pete Hegseth’s potential impeachment from being secretary of defense is six of those eight articles are about Pete following illegal orders from the president,” said Kelly, speaking with an Atlantic host at the September Atlantic Festival” in New York. “If he’d just listened to us, he would not have found himself as now … [as] the first cabinet member where a member of his own party has tried to impeach him and throw him out of office.”
“So, [Hegseth] goes down in history as that guy,” chided Kelly. “But if he had listened to the six of us he would not have found himself in this situation.”
Kelly said he had “never met Tom Massie” prior to his resolution this week.
“We’ve never spoken before until a couple of days ago after this happened. I thought it was appropriate to give him call because of his … resolution of impeachment, but it’s eight articles in there. One of them is about what Pete Hegseth is trying to do to me, my name, and he goes through my case and why he believes this is an impeachable offense.”