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Articles of impeachment have officially been introduced against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegsth. Outgoing Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, long a critic of Hegsth, unveiled the articles earlier today. Massie was critical in particular of Hegath's handling of the war with Iran. The secretary says he will hold a press conference at the Pentagon tomorrow morning to address the impeachment efforts. The congressman's move came just hours after House lawmakers returned to work for the first time since those midterm elections. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell is at the White House for us and NBC News national senior national political reporter Sahil Kapoor on Capitol Hill for us today.
Sahil, I'll start with you from Capitol Hill. What did Congressman Massie say about these impeachment articles and how much support does there seem to be on Capitol Hill to impeach the secretary now under still a Republican le Congress? Kate, this has been a long time coming. Uh Congressman Tom Massie telegraphed this even before the House went into recess for their lengthy uh pre-election uh holiday where members were back home campaigning. And Massie didn't waste any time when the House uh returned today. He announced that he is introducing eight articles of impeachment accusing Secretary Hegathth of high crimes and misdemeanors on counts of waging war in controvers controvention of the war
powers resolution in addition to uh engaging in extrajudicial killings, suppressing free speech and a host of other things. Massie made his case on the House floor. Take a listen to what he said. Secretary of Defense Peter Hgsithth by such conduct has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to the Constitution if allowed to remain in office and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with his duties and the rule of law. Now, this is a privileged resolution which means under the House rules, it has to vote within two legislative days. So, we're likely to see a vote later this week and it could pass, Kate, because of the narrow majorities in the
House. If Democrats are on board, all it takes is a few Republicans in addition to Massie. Kelly, let me go to you at the White House. First, is there any reaction out of the White House to all of this? But also, President Trump has said on 60 Minutes that he expects to make more changes to his cabinet after Republicans big losses in the midterms. What more do we know about that? Well, broadly, the president has said he supports Pete Hegsth and believes he is doing a good job. Also today, Secretary of State uh Marco Rubio, who is traveling overseas, also affirmed that he believes that Hegsth has been doing a
good job. So that is sort of the initial response. When it comes to changes, the president said he is happy with his cabinet and that he expects to make some changes. That could be more broad. That interview in uh the 60 Minutes interview was taped about an hour before we learned of the chief of staff change where the president removed Susie Wilds who had been his longest serving chief of staff in this term and his first term and replaced her with Steven Miller. And so that may account for some of what the president was talking about with a little bit of changes. We don't yet know. And part of the challenge would be with a Democratic Senate coming in January, this lame duck period between
today when Congress is back through the end of its term. That would be a challenge for the president to have to do a replacement of any cabinet official because of the balance of power. Right now, Republicans have sufficient numbers to confirm a sitting a new sitting member of the cabinet. Uh come January, that would change.
