Outgoing Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie led a push this week to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a move that went nowhere but drew exactly the kind of media attention Massie has sought throughout his final term in Congress, according to a new Fox News opinion column by Hugh Hewitt.
Massie, who lost his May Republican primary to Ed Gallrein by nearly 10 percent, will leave Congress after a dozen years in the seat. President Trump publicly weighed in on Massie’s ouster, writing on social media Tuesday, “Kentucky, get this loser out of politics.”
Hegseth responded to the impeachment effort at a Tuesday morning press conference, calling it a “farce” and a “stunt.” Hewitt’s column holds up Hegseth’s response as a model for handling political attacks: answer clearly, reject the theatrics, and get back to work without getting dragged into a prolonged fight.
Massie’s time in Congress, Hewitt writes, produced one substantive legislative achievement beyond his frequent media appearances: a provision in the 2018 Farm Bill that removed hemp from the federal controlled substances definition, clearing the way for commercial hemp production nationwide.
The Epstein Files Fight
Earlier this year, Massie used a discharge petition — a procedural tool that forces a floor vote over leadership’s objections — to compel release of the Epstein files. He recruited three other Republicans to join him: Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
All four lawmakers will be out of Congress by Jan. 3. The released files implicated former British ambassador to the United States Lord Peter Mandelson and former U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, but contained nothing tying President Trump to Epstein’s crimes, according to the column.
A similar discharge-petition revolt played out on the Democratic side of the aisle earlier this year, when New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler forced a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies over his own conference’s objections. Three other Republicans — Brian Fitzpatrick, Rob Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie — joined Lawler on that petition. All four lost their races last week.
What Comes Next
Hewitt’s column argues that with Democrats holding a large House majority, impeachment votes against Trump and Hegseth are likely to recur repeatedly over the next two years, drawing near-unanimous support from the Democratic caucus even though they won’t produce enough Senate votes for removal.
To handle the fights ahead, Hewitt argues Trump should hire a press secretary who is also a sharp lawyer — ideally a former Supreme Court clerk well-versed in Article II powers and case law such as Justice Robert Jackson’s 1952 opinion in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer — to counter a press corps he expects to grow increasingly combative.
