Cliff’s Note:
David Shuster spent twenty years covering the Pentagon and Capitol Hill for MSNBC and Fox, which means when he tells you a cabinet secretary is finished, he is not guessing. He has watched this exact movie before. He was there in 2006.
Here is what he does in this piece that nobody on cable will do tonight: he goes and reads the House rule. Rule IX, privileged resolutions, two legislative days. That is why he can tell you exactly what the Speaker did last week and exactly why.
This is the whole reason we built this place. Not louder takes. People who know the building.
Five bucks a month gets you all of it, and nobody upstairs deciding which cabinet secretary we are allowed to say is cooked.
—Cliff
by David Shuster
Over the past two years, the Trump administration has delivered a string of horrifying spectacles. And there is every indication now that the public and political fallout will soon cost Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth his job.
Hegseth’s controversies range from mishandling sensitive military information to draconian personnel changes at the Pentagon to trying to hide American military casualties and damage to U.S. bases across the Persian Gulf.
The controversies intersect with an extraordinary and recent development in the U.S. House: Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s effort to impeach Hegseth.
Last week, before Republican speaker Mike Johnson suddenly put the House into an early recess, Massie introduced a privileged resolution seeking Hegseth’s impeachment. Massie’s eight articles accuse the defense secretary of, among other things, violating the War Powers Resolution, disregarding congressional restrictions on the Iran conflict, weakening civilian-harm protections, authorizing extrajudicial killings and engaging in other conduct that Massie characterizes as impeachable.
Under House Rule IX, a properly noticed privileged resolution receives precedence within two legislative days or 48 hours. However, the House doesn’t have to wait 48 hours. The House could vote on the resolution immediately, which is usually what happens when the majority determines the resolution doesn’t have majority support and can be eliminated.
But a funny thing happened as Speaker Johnson tried to squelch the Hegseth impeachment and protect the Trump administration. Several Republican lawmakers indicated they would join Massie and all democrats in supporting the Hegseth impeachment. So, rather than allow a vote, Johnson put the House in recess for seven weeks until after the mid-term elections.
