US House begins vote on motion to advance impeachment of Pete Hegseth

A vote on whether to move forward with the impeachment of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has begun in the US House of Representatives, following a midterm election in which voters vented frustrations over the Iran war Hegseth has helped spearhead.

The procedural vote on Tuesday will decide whether to send the resolution, brought by Republican Representative Thomas Massie, back to committee, effectively blocking it, or proceed to a final vote on Wednesday.

Democratic representatives are expected to support the measure, setting up a test of whether Republican lawmakers will break with the Trump administration and distance themselves from the unpopular war after a rebuke at the polls.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has said that he is a "hard yes" on the resolution.

If the motion does pass, an impeachment conviction in the US Senate, where it would require a two-thirds vote and Republicans have a 53-seat majority, remains unlikely.

Massie's resolution includes eight separate articles of impeachment, accusing the combative Pentagon chief of launching an illegal war against Iran without congressional approval and overseeing a campaign of strikes targeting alleged drug trafficking vessels that legal scholars say are extrajudicial killings.

Hegseth has denounced the resolution as "sabotage" and a "farce", while US President Donald Trump and prominent members of his administration have expressed their continued support for him.

Speculation about Hegseth's position within the administration has circulated as polls suggest that voters partly blame the war for surging prices of goods such as gasoline and groceries, and has grown stronger after Republicans faced punishing losses in the midterm elections.

"Is he being truthful in the way the war is going?" outgoing Republican Senator Joni Ernst said of Hegseth on Tuesday.