It's Hegseth we need to get. {As of Nov 9, 2026; Rep Thomas Massie (GOP) filed articles of impeachment for Hegseth.}

Politics & Elections
21

In WWII we only had a fledgling (Army) Air Force; no ‘Nuclear Navy’, STRATCOM, SOCOM, or satellites and space launch capability; didn’t have to worry about cyberwarfare; minimal cryptographic capability, and so many other capabilities and technologies that didn’t even exist circa 1945. While I’m sympathetic to general desire to streamline the often complex managerial bureaucracy of the Department of Defense, arbitrarily shaving off percentages or evaluating the DoD specifically on “contribut[ing] to warfighting success” when the military actually has a much broader role in national security beyond just lobbing bombs and engaging in broadsides is, charitably speaking, obtuse.

Stranger

22

Government purges are this year’s agenda, in and out of the military.

Next year, they will decide they needed those positions after all and fill them with lackeys.

I can’t recall historical examples but have read this is from the normal dictator playbook.

P.S. I don’t exactly know what a playbook is, but the professional pundits use the word a lot. So why not I?

23

Yeah, I was wondering about a break down of how many types of commands just didn’t exist back then. We have jobs now that WWII era generals just couldn’t imagine.

24

It’s literally a book in which you write down all your plays. Probably the most common in American Football, which uses set-piece plays all the time.

25

The entire structure of the military and even its essential mission today is very different from the US Army and Navy of WWII, or even as of the Vietnam War. Just making that kind of comparison shows that Hegseth doesn’t really understand anything about the military…but then, he’s probably mostly resentful that he got sidelined in his job for being a vocal racist with Christian Nationalist tattoos.

Stranger

26

You know what would be really nice? If Hegseth had any idea what he was talking about or could get basic facts straight. Because that’s flat-out bullshit and factually wrong.

“Last time we had that rank density was April 1945, when we had four five-stars and 13 four-stars,” Coglianese said, adding pointing out that at that time the Air Force was known as the U.S. Army Air Force.

Add to that those Naval officers of equivalent rank there were seven officers of five-star rank and 24 officers of four-star rank in the US military in World War II.

27

I’m bumping this thread because it looks like we might “get” Hegseth soon.

This is being led by Republicans on their way out of office, and of course the Democrats will support this. I don’t know if there are enough votes to get this to pass, but it would be amazing if this happened before the Democrats even take over.

Republicans hold a razor-thin 218-214 majority in the House, meaning only a handful of Republican defections could result in Hegseth’s impeachment.

A Perfectly Reasonable Amount of Schadenfreude about Things Happening to Trump & His Enablers (Part 3)
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A lot of veteran Republicans are military and foreign affairs hawks, and the ones with nothing left to lose have found the courage of their convictions :roll_eyes: at last.

29

I think I can guess which way Massie will go!

30

hegseth_articles_of_impeachment.pdf

the document massie read out in congress today.

“Massie introduced updated impeachment articles on the House floor on Monday, restarting a two-day clock for GOP leaders to schedule a vote.” per news sources.

31

Sassy Massie after he introduced the articles of impeachment:

“I hope Hegseth addresses the 8 articles of impeachment, and doesn‘t get up and misquote the Bible in Quentin Tarantino fashion and do some pull-ups and call everybody fat and gay. I may have just given you half his speech, I don’t know.”

To Sassy Massie: Have you spoken to Sen. McConnell?

“I have not, but if it were possible to have a conversation with McConnell…”

32

These are pretty damning. And it’s very schaudenfraudy that Hegseth is quoted at length calling rules of engagement “stupid” and so forth. His degrading of the culture and rules by which the military operates are called out in detail, along with their consequences. Kudos to Massie and the staffers who researched and wrote this.

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I’m curious why he was impeached now and and they didn’t wait until after the new congress is seated. But, I assume I am missing something like…

  1. Enough senate GOPers have signaled they would vote to convict
  2. There is some nutty rule that makes this a good time to impeach and convict
  3. Massey doesn’t actually want Hegseth removed; he is only making some kind of protest statement (or something)

But no matter what reason… HAPPY IMPEACHING!!

35

Because Thomas Massie, who introduced the articles of impeachment, won’t be in the new congress. He was primaried by a more Trump-friendly Republican.

36

Yes, but somebody else could get it going and he knows that. Gosh only knows there are enough members who would like to.

I just learned that the House can decide when to send to the Senate for trial so they could pocket it until after Jan 3 (but do they need 2/3s of senate for that?) but that would still leave the current House deciding whether to impeach. Are there enough votes? If not, why did Massey start this?

ETA: I just read that impeachment motions don’t expire like bills do so any impeachment motion would still be alive for the next congress.

37

Clearly he either thinks he has the votes or he thinks it is important enough to bring up now even if it loses, or perhaps a bit of both. There might be a little bit of revenge on Trump mixed in.

He’s not going to tell anyone his actual motivation, so that’s as good as we’ll ever get.

38

I actually have the documented answer to your question.

NPR: Thomas Massie files articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth

Massie first sought to bring the impeachment resolution to the floor before the midterm elections, prompting Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to call an early recess to avoid the vote. That caused the resolution to expire, which is why Massie reintroduced the resolution Monday.

So literally the reason why now is because he tried to do it before, and Mike Johnson maneuvered to delay it. Otherwise, this would have already happened.

And note that this impeachment isn’t in response to the midterm results, because Massie had tried even before the midterm to do this. Hegseth and Massie have been feuding for some time. From the NPR article:

Massie has long been a staunch critic of Hegseth. During the GOP primary, Hegseth campaigned on behalf of Ed Gallrein, who went on to defeat Massie.

In response to Hegseth calling him a “disgruntled defeated congressman,” Massie told reporters on Monday: “Well, he’s right about one thing — I’m a defeated congressman. I’m not disgruntled.”

Massie is also reportedly trying to see if Congress actually has any teeth in regards to reining in an Executive that is going rogue militarily, since presidents have considered the war powers resolution to be “more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules” (to paraphrase Captain Barbossa of Pirates of the Caribbean). And this isn’t just Trump, but the majority of presidents going back for decades, including Democratic ones.

Massie said the effort also underscores the need to litigate whether Congress has real war powers or not. The war powers resolution has largely been ignored by presidents of both parties.

“What’s at heart here is the balance of power between the executive branch and Congress,” he said.

39

Thank you for this. I didn’t know that stuff and it really helps explain things.

40

I saw some speculation that many defeated Republican cnagressmen will not even bother to show up for this session, so the impeachment may even be likely. But getting 2/3 of the (old) senate is a different matter. Still, if the prevailing mood of the Republicans is now to distance themselves from Trump, who knows.