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When have Cabinet members been impeached in US history?

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Knox, B. (2026, November 10). When have Cabinet members been impeached in US history? Washington Examiner. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/4798433/when-cabinet-member-impeach-us-history/

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Washington Examiner · collected 2026-11-10 · by Brady Knox

Quick Summary

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has filed articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth, the current Secretary of War, on charges related to his actions involving Venezuela and Iran. If impeached, Hegseth would become the third Cabinet member in U.S. history to face this action, following William Belknap in 1876 during President Grant's administration and Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024 under former President Biden.
Written by AI on 2026-11-11, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

Pete Hegseth, Defense Secretary, narrowly avoided impeachment on November 11, 2026, after a majority in the House of Representatives voted against referring impeachment articles to a committee. The move was led by Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who accused Hegseth of waging war on Iran without congressional authorization and executing unlawful military orders. Despite widespread criticism following Republican losses in the midterm elections largely due to Trump's Iran war, President Donald Trump continued to support Hegseth, stating he is "doing a great job." The failure of the impeachment measure was attributed to solidarity among House Republicans and concerns that punishing military leadership for lawful operations could endanger national security.

Written for “House GOP Blocks Hegseth Impeachment” on 2026-11-11, grounded in this article and the 221 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political question, so it has no leaning score. That is an answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political position.
No political leaning scored for article 142341 · logged 2026-11-11

Story

House GOP Blocks Hegseth Impeachment
Politics · 222 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Hegseth Could Be the Third Cabinet Secretary to be Impeached. What Happened to the Others? Same event
TIME
Hedges 8 of 60 claims Outlet record 59/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
4
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 4 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
68/100
Washington Examiner's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
222
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-11-11 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

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Who wrote this

Brady Knox
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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s pending impeachment would make him the third U.S. Cabinet official to be impeached in the nation’s history, though the distance between the first and second was nearly 150 years.
2026-11-10 · assertive framing · When have Cabinet members been impeached in US history?
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Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 100 articles by Brady Knox →

Topics

Cabinet Iran U.S. Cabinet Venezuelan War

Subjects

War ORG · 2× Cabinet ORG · 1× Hegseth PERSON · 1× Iran GPE · 1× Nicolas Maduro PERSON · 1× Pete Hegseth PERSON · 1× Thomas Massie PERSON · 1× U.S. Cabinet ORG · 1× Venezuelan NORP · 1× William Belknap PERSON · 1×

Narrative

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) filed articles of impeachment against Hegseth on Monday and forced a vote within two days, on charges ranging from the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to his handling of the war with Iran.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-11
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s pending impeachment would make him the third U.S. Cabinet official to be impeached in the nation’s history, though the distance between the first and second was nearly 150 years.
2026-11-11 · Washington Examiner
When have Cabinet members been impeached in US history? · assertive framing

Claims (4 extracted, 0 hedged)

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s pending impeachment would make him the third U.S. Cabinet official to be impeached in the nation’s history, though the distance between the first and second was nearly 150 years. asserted
distance → pende → first
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) filed articles of impeachment against Hegseth on Monday and forced a vote within two days, on charges ranging from the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to his handling of the war with Iran. asserted
Massie → file → Iran
The first Cabinet impeachment was of Secretary of War William Belknap, in 1876, who served under President Ulysses S. Grant. asserted
who → serve → Grant
The second was Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024, who served under former President Joe Biden. asserted
who → serve → Biden
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