Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a retiring Trump critic, has reintroduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, forcing a House floor vote within two legislative days (expected by Nov. 11) unless Republicans move to kill it. The eight articles center on the Trump administration's war with Iran and other military actions, alleging violations of the War Powers Resolution because Congress neither declared war nor authorized force. Hegseth held a rare Pentagon briefing calling the effort "a farce and a stunt" and "sabotage," while defending the Iran operation (Operation Epic Fury) as lawful and historic.
Impeachment is politically significant because Democrats swept the midterms and will control the House in January, but Republicans still hold the majority now. Massie's privileged resolution forces a vote while the GOP still controls the chamber. The push reflects Democratic anger over the Iran war and a belief that impeaching Hegseth may be more achievable than impeaching Trump, per legal expert Stanley Brand. Hegseth and Trump argue the military actions were lawful and successful, citing historical precedent and framing the impeachment as partisan revenge.
The House has impeached only two Cabinet secretaries: Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024 — neither case involved "carrying out lawful military operations," so Hegseth's narrow claim holds. This is a live-coverage announcement, not a factual claim. (The Pentagon briefing did occur.)
Hegseth did use this language, calling the impeachment effort "a farce and a stunt... driven by ego and resentment" aimed at Rep. Thomas Massie.
Hegseth explicitly compared his impeachment to Trump's two prior impeachments, saying "we've seen this show before" and predicting it would fail the same way. This is Hegseth's subjective praise of Trump's leadership — opinion, not a checkable factual claim.
The House is indeed set to vote on impeaching Heg
BMorning Briefing, I'm Brian. California just voted down a billionaire tax, and now the economists are fighting over why.
BAnd I'm Bella. The state that taxes everything just said no to taxing billionaires more. That's a political earthquake.
BNPR's Planet Money asks why California's billionaire tax failed to surf the blue wave.
BBlue wave? California just rejected the tax. That's the wave crashing.
BNo, voters rejected this tax, not the whole idea. There's a difference.
BThe state that elected every progressive under the sun just said no to a wealth tax. That should worry the movement.
BOr it means voters heard the argument that rich people will leave and took it seriously.
BRich people already leave California. This was a chance to make them pay.
BAnd drive out more? That's the whole debate, Bella. You don't tax your way out of an exodus.
BThey're not leaving because of taxes—they're leaving because housing is impossible.
BSure, and the tax bill never matters. Come on.
BYou can't keep cutting services and then wonder why people leave.
BNo, you can't keep raising rates and then wonder why job creators leave.
BMy take: California voters are more practical than the legislature gives them credit for.
BMine is the movement just learned a hard lesson—if you can't win in California, you can't sell it anywhere.
BNPR has two economists debating this right now. One says the movement is dead, the other says wait for the next crisis.
BThat's the only thing they agree on: it's not settled. Fine.
BStill in politics—DIN Intel Network posted a clip on X of Thomas Massie saying the quiet part out loud.
BWhich part?
BMassie's exact words: 'We control the House, Senate, Supreme Court, and the White House, and we're yelling election fraud?' Then he adds, 'we won all the damn elections.'
BHe's not wrong. It is a strange thing for a party in total control to claim the system is rigged.
BMassie is also retiring and loves throwing grenades. So take it with salt.
BHe still said it. And he's a Republican. That gives it a different sting.
BSure, but the complaint isn't that Republicans lost; it's that specific races had problems. Those aren't the same.
BThat's exactly the kind of thing that sounds like an excuse after you won everything.
BOh, come on. You can win the White House and still question a county's ballot count. That's not hypocrisy.
BMaybe. But when your own guy says it's ironic, that's a problem for the message.
BMassie says it because he's never met a Republican leadership he wouldn't fight. This is his goodbye tour.
BFine, the clip's real. The question is whether it lands.
BSpeaking of money: CNN posted on X that Anthropic may price its shares as high as seventy-eight dollars.
BThat's a giant number. But there's no official confirmation yet. CNN says 'plans.'
BRight, so treat it as early. Still, a reported trillion-dollar valuation for an AI company going public would be about as big as it gets.
BInvestors once hoped for more. The report says the valuation is less than they wanted.
BSo the AI boom is cooling? Or sanity is returning.
BMaybe both. Anthropic makes Claude, one of the big AI assistants. Real product, real revenue.
BReal revenue, but still a race that burns billions. A high IPO price isn't a business model.
BNeither is staying private and starving competitors of capital. They have to scale.
BFine, but I'd want more than a high share price before calling it the next great American company.
BToday it's a report, not a prospectus. We'll see if the number holds.
BLet's get serious for a minute. NPR has a report from Ethiopia that is hard to read.
BRenewed fighting has flooded one emergency room with war trauma patients. A surgeon described a brutal week in September.
BThis is what collapse looks like up close. Not numbers, just a room full of wounded people.
BNPR says the healthcare system is close to collapse after seven days of chaos.
BAnd that's one hospital. The country has been at war on and off for years. This is the human cost of a conflict the headlines mostly ignore.
BI wouldn't say the headlines ignore it. It's that too many crises compete for the same ten minutes.
BThat's fair. But one flooded ER is enough to warrant more than ten minutes.
BWe should all sit with that. It's a reminder that the rest of the world doesn't pause for our politics.
BWe'll keep an eye on it.