—Josh Allen, B1Daily

The political fight over America’s war with Iran has taken another unusual turn: a Republican congressman is trying to impeach the Republican administration’s defense secretary.

Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on September 15, accusing him of violating congressional war powers and abusing the authority of the Pentagon. Massie read the resolution on the House floor and introduced it as privileged, requiring the House to address it within two legislative days.

The centerpiece is the Iran war.

Massie alleges that Hegseth participated in conducting hostilities without the congressional authorization required under the War Powers Resolution, continued military operations despite congressional efforts to terminate U.S. involvement and allowed unauthorized hostilities to continue beyond statutory limits. Those are Massie’s legal allegations, not judicial findings that Hegseth violated the law.

His resolution goes considerably further. The eight articles also target Hegseth over military operations involving Venezuela and Yemen, civilian casualties, strikes on vessels accused of drug trafficking and the Pentagon’s actions toward Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.

The Pentagon rejects Massie’s characterization. Press secretary Kingsley Wilson responded that the department remains unified behind Hegseth and his leadership. The Trump administration has also argued that the president possesses constitutional authority to conduct the Iran campaign without additional congressional authorization and has challenged the constitutionality of the War Powers Resolution itself.

Massie’s move is particularly notable because it comes from inside the Republican Party. He has become one of Congress’s most persistent Republican critics of U.S. military intervention and previously joined lawmakers seeking to constrain the Iran campaign through the War Powers Resolution. He also lost his Republican primary earlier this year to a Trump-backed challenger.

The impeachment effort now puts a constitutional argument directly before the House: How far can a president and defense secretary conduct sustained military operations without fresh authorization from Congress?

Massie has chosen impeachment as his answer.

The House will now have to decide what to do with it.

—Josh Allen, B1Daily