MASSIEFLIX

Massie: Speaker Johnson Blocked the Hegseth Impeachment Vote

Sep 17, 2026 · 8:16 hegsethimpeachmentleadership-fightsjohnsoncnn

Massie on CNN after Speaker Mike Johnson sent the House home a day early, pausing the clock on a vote on Massie's Hegseth impeachment articles.

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  1. House Speaker Mike Johnson has sent lawmakers home for a seven-week recess early ahead of the midterm campaign. That departure is one day earlier than planned. It staves off a vote to impeach the
  2. defense secretary, Pete Hegathth, that was brought by a fellow Republican. Thomas Massie made the unprecedented and surprise move yesterday to force that vote over how the secretary has handled the
  3. Iran war. He had wanted to catch leadership off guard so they would be forced to call a vote. But by skipping town a day early, that legislative clock on that vote has now been paused. On the
  4. way out the door, Congressman Massie slammed his party's leader for the delay. We may only be the majority for six more weeks. Why would we be cancelling days when the country is burning,
  5. the inflation is rampant, there are things we could do here? Why would we cancel our own majority? I can't figure that out. But I did figure out why we cancelled tomorrow. Tomorrow
  6. ould be the vote on impeaching Secretary of Defense Peter Brian Hegath. Where else can you get a job that pays almost $15,000 a month and benefits and some months you
  7. don't even have to come to work. And Congressman Massie is back as my source tonight. Thank you, sir, for being here. Do you believe that it was because of your introduction of those articles
  8. of impeachment is the reason lawmakers went home early today? I know it was. Here's why. It's it's actually bad politics to leave this impeachment hanging over Pete Hegsth's head for eight weeks.
  9. And if if there was any other reason that they canled tomorrow's day of session, they could have had the Hegth vote tonight because the rules say that he has to have the vote within 48 hours. They
  10. don't have to say, they don't say he has to wait 48 hours. So, he could have had the vote yesterday as soon as I introduced the articles. He could have done it today before he adjourned Congress,
  11. but he he called us off tomorrow. I'm calling it the Hegs Seth holiday because it's just one day now. The two weeks he cut off the calendar, I'm calling that the Epstein recess because that's
  12. an entire recess, two weeks of our majority. He What would have happened, do you think, if they had voted on it tonight? That's a great question. The fact that they didn't vote on it tells me
  13. that they did a whip check and they probably found that there were some other Republicans besides me that were going to vote for this or at least didn't want to be on the record supporting
  14. Heg Seth. You know, one of your colleagues of North Congressman from North Carolina Carolina, Republican Greg Murphy said, quote, "Sadly, we have members of Congress who didn't get picked
  15. by their fifth grade kickball team and are taking out their frustration on the institution of the House of Representatives. # move on. He doesn't name you, but do you believe that's directed at
  16. you? Um, I made it to sixth grade kickball. Thank you very much. I washed out in the seventh grade. I'm I'm not here to play kickball. Look, I'm here to get stuff done. And he he doesn't put his
  17. ignature on the Epstein discharge petition, but he'll vote for it once he once I lead that bill to the floor. He'll vote for it. He's a follower, not a leader. He was facing an impeachment vote in
  18. the House. Speaker Johnson abruptly announced he was sending members home early for their midterm election recess today, postponing any vote on impeachment of Hegath until after the election.
  19. As a former Republican member of Congress, I'm wondering what you made of that move. Yeah, I mean, look, I I know exactly what that move is because it's happened a number of times. It's
  20. happened a lot under Speaker Johnson because he has such a slim majority. It it's because that vote would have passed. Uh Tom Massie created these articles of impeachment. and I think there
  21. were eight of them against uh HEGs and actually didn't tell leadership. So there's a privileged resolution which means any member can bring it and uh he kind of snuck it in was ready to drop
  22. it. Leadership found out about it and then that is the oldest thing in the playbook is send everybody home early and I mean if you actually look at how many days Congress has been in session this
  23. year it's egregiously low. They're now Yeah. Yeah, they're go they're now going home until after the lection despite being here just a week after just coming off of the significant break. So,
  24. it's a really good job if he can get it because you really don't have to go to work much. But do you think that impeachment resolution would have passed? It really seems like it. Uh I I I think
  25. if they knew they had the votes to shoot it down, they would have shot it down because clearly by going home when that thing is introduced, it it appears to all of us like it actually would pass.
  26. So you've got there's enough Republicans who think he's doing a terrible job there. I think so. There doesn't need to be even be that many Republicans that that are willing to vote for an impeachment
  27. because there's such a slim majority. Yeah, I I I think Republicans, if you put them on the, you know, the polygraph that uh Hexath seems so keen on giving, I think they would all fail if
  28. they tell you he's doing a good job. But I think there's a few that were willing to put their money where their mouth was and vote for it. And I think Speaker Johnson had to go home. Otherwise, that
  29. would be a crazy story to go on for, you know, up until election day. After his win, forcing an Epstein vote, Thomas Massiey's really feeling himself, right? He wants, let's just put that out
  30. here. He likes to be in front of a camera. for losing a primary. He's got nothing to lose. Tell me more. So, why do you think Johnson didn't just have the vote? Well, I think uh it's important.
  31. I I mean, look, I'm going to take him at his word here because we've got important midterm elections coming up. I'm not sure what else they would have accomplished today. They accomplished the uh the
  32. y voted the Russia sanctions bill that got sent to the White House. At that point, I think sending everyone home to campaign in their districts was a smart smart move whether or not this HEGS Seth
  33. uh bill by Massie got put forward or not. So that's what I think happened last night. And speaking of the YOLO conference or caucus, you have Massie coming, but I'm glad you brought it
  34. up. You have him doing what he wants to do, but a lot of House Republicans can't because they're facing very tight re-election bids. There was also a vote yesterday on the war powers resolution and
  35. you saw seven Republicans vote with Democrats on that. A lot of those Republicans are facing very uphill re-election bids. Uh Marinette Miller Meeks in Iowa, Tom Barrett in Michigan, Brian
  36. Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania. So I think, you know, there's a possibility that there was the chance that a lot of these Republicans would have been put on the record for this vote at a time when
  37. poll after poll shows Americans are very unhappy with the administration, including Secretary. Just while you're talking, Quinnipak poll from September showing people actually asked directly,
  38. do you approve of the way Pete Hexth is handling his job? Um, right now it's 57% disapproval and that 11% no opinion is probably not high enough to gamble on in terms of winning them over. Um,
  39. Manu Raju actually uh caught some people in the aole as he has want to do to say, "Hey, seems like you're leaving. Is that a good idea?" And here are some of the answers. What do you
  40. think of the fact that the House is now leaving town until after the November elections? Well, if you leave, if in the business arena, if you leave town, you don't get paid. You don't work.
  41. Disappointing. Democrats benefit from this as much as Republicans do. Everyone gets to go home and campaign is going to be a blood bath. The speaker though says the reason why you guys can go home
  42. is because you guys have done such a great job up here. Do you think that the public thinks you guys have done such a great job? Absolutely not. We have the lowest uh ratings ever in the history.
  43. Uh, just so people know, that's pulling right up to the front steps of the congressional building. When you see a car zooming out of there, they are truly going home. Is that going to be time
  44. well spent? I mean, I don't know that they're going home to actually campaign. I think that's a nice talking point that the Republicans can give everyone. They need to stay and work. I think the American people are tired of Congress not working. They seem to always be out on vacation or they're
  45. not passing legislation or the government is shut down. So, there is a reason that they have low approval ratings and this is why it's going to be an anti-incumbency election for both Democrats and
  46. Republicans. The American people want solutions. They want their gas lower. They want their groceries lower and being sent home to campaign is not a good enough reason to the American

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