It Was Smart Politics to Kill the Hegseth Impeachment

Why let Donald Trump appoint a new Secretary of War before Democrats take back the Senate chamber?

When I first read that Democrats had a chance to impeach Pete Hegseth and 11 House Democrats failed to show up to vote on the measure, I was, like many others online, outraged. Maybe it was the AIPAC coalition? Maybe Democrats were just feckless and inept?

Conspiracies ran amok. I myself pointed out that the Minority Whip, Rep. Katherine Clark's (D-MA) largest donor is AIPAC and that many of the 11 who missed the vote were stuck in traffic on their way back from an AIPAC sponsored event. These are all true things that definitely happened, but I think actually that Republicans killing the Hegseth impeachment this week was a good thing politically.

Without enough Senate votes to convict, the House vote is mostly symbolic at this point anyway. Rep. Thomas Massie, long a MAGA critic, wanted one last fuck you before leaving Congress in a few weeks and filed the articles of impeachment against Hegseth. The vote this week was over whether to refer the matter to a House committee where Republicans could effectively bury it.

The measure succeeded. Hegseth earned a reprieve, at least for now.

The more I thought about things, the more I realized that this was the ideal political outcome for Democrats. They made each of the Republicans take a position supporting Hegseth's war crimes while avoiding a situation where Republicans would be in charge of the Senate trial.

Let's just think for a second about the ideal scenario. Somehow Hegseth is impeached in the House, which takes just a simple majority vote. The impeachment would then move to the Senate and would require 67 votes to convict. Let's assume enough Senate Republicans are convinced to vote to convict (which probably won't happen anyway), do we want Trump appointing the next Secretary of War with a GOP Senate rubber stamp or do we want Democrats in control of confirming Hegseth's successor?

I'd rather have the second scenario, personally.

Secondly, do we want this current crop of Republicans running a show trial where they can let Hegseth get away with handwaving away his crimes in a banana court, or do we want Democrats setting the terms and rules of the trial?

Again, I'd rather wait a few weeks and have Democrats in control.

I don't believe the 11 Democrats who missed the vote really want to permanently kill a Hegseth impeachment, in the end, I just sort of think this week's vote was rather meaningless.

There's nothing stopping Democrats from filing the same impeachment articles again in a few weeks when no number of no show Democrats could defeat the measure.

Sometimes, patience is the best strategy, it's just that the Democratic base is high off their victories of last week and are thirsty for blood and justice. I understand both the instinct and desire for both, though I'm not convinced there will be enough votes for either in the end.

Either way, let's have some patience and focus right now on the Congressional leadership races. The Hegseth impeachment will come, we will have our day in court.

Thank you so much for reading! Apologies for missing stream last night, I am having a pain issue with my arm and it hurts to sit for long periods of time at my desk. We'll try again next week.