Only two Cabinet secretaries have ever been impeached. Will Hegseth be the third?

Only two Cabinet secretaries have ever been impeached. Will Hegseth be the third? As lawmakers returned to Washington on Monday, an expected impeachment vote loomed over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The effort to remove Hegseth has been led by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), who said he plans to introduce a resolution calling for a vote as soon as Monday. Even if the House votes to impeach Hegseth, a conviction would require a two-thirds majority in the Senate, making his removal from office unlikely. The House has impeached just two Cabinet officials in the United States’ 250-year history. The first was distinguished Civil War veteran William Belknap, President Ulysses S. Grant’s secretary of war, amid a corruption scandal in 1876. He was charged with criminal disregard for his office and accepting payments in exchange for making official appointments. Belknap resigned before the House vote but was impeached regardless. The Senate acquitted him. In 2024, President Joe Biden’s homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, was impeached and accused of failing to enforce immigration laws and breaching public trust. The charges were narrowly approved in the House, but the Senate dismissed them without a full trial.