The Tectonic

🇺🇲 More on today's vote. The motion referred Massie's resolution to the House Judiciary Committee, which has no obligation to take it up. Per the official roll call, 210 Republicans and independent Rep. Kevin Kiley voted to refer, while Massie joined 203 Democrats in opposition. Seven Republicans and eleven Democrats did not vote. Hours earlier, at a Pentagon briefing, Hegseth called the effort "a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment" and the work of "one disgruntled guy." Of the operations cited in the articles, he said: "I stand behind every one of these operations. I was proud to execute them, and I would do it again tomorrow." Vice President JD Vance wrote on X: "Has Pete Hegseth committed impeachable crimes? The question is absurd and the answer is: obviously not." Some Republicans had expected a different outcome. On Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz said on a podcast that Hegseth was "running out of road." According to the New York Times, some Republicans unhappy with Hegseth argued that his fate rests with Trump, since cabinet secretaries serve at the pleasure of the president, and others privately worried the articles could also implicate Trump as commander in chief. After the vote, Trump called it the "EXONERATION of a Great American Patriot." Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell called the referral "total victory for Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War, and the American warfighter."