His articles of impeachment say more about him than his target, Pete Hegseth.
Republicans in Kentucky threw Thomas Massie out on his ear in this year’s primary. In 14 years in Congress, Massie accomplished nothing but praise from the press for opposing his party’s last three presidential nominees: Donald Trump, Donald Trump and Donald Trump.
Massie says America First without first giving America one darned thing.
On his way out, Massie filed an eight-count impeachment of War Secretary Pete Hegseth. It is another vanity legislative proposal aimed at gaining attention for a back-seater in the House and not actual passage because he seeks headlines, not the common good.
What is revealing about the man is the charges Massie made.
The first three articles charge Hegseth with “Waging War in Contravention of the War Powers Resolution of 1973,” but the commander-in-chief—President Trump—made the call, not the secretary of war. Trump did so in full compliance with the law, which itself is unquestioningly unconstitutional.
Article IV charges Hegseth with “Ignoring Laws that Minimize Civilian Casualties.” There were no civilian deaths in Venezuela or the Caribbean. Civilian deaths have been minimal in Iran.
The heart of the matter—the reason for the impeachment are in Article V—“Extrajudicial Killings” and Article VII—“Kidnapping of a Sovereign Foreign Leader.” His are objections to the war on drugs.
The first charge covers the deaths of 243 pirates who tried to smuggle contraband drugs into the country, most notably fentanyl, a drug Red China distributes to the USA in a modern opium war against America.
The second one is a lefty blogger’s clickbait headline because Maduro was arrested, not kidnapped, and he is an imposter whose re-election the United States was never recognized under Biden—and certainly not under Biden.
If I were Speaker Mike Johnson, I would have pushed for passage of Massie’s impeachment proposal because 1. it would force a trial, which would spoil the Christmas break for senators and 2. an acquittal, which would block Democrats from trying Hegseth on those weird charges ever again.
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But such thinking is the reason that I am not the Speaker of the House.
And many are the reasons Massie’s congressional career ends on January 3. Let’s look at his record.
In May 2013, he voted against the Stolen Valor Act of 2013, which passed 390–3. He is OK with lying about one’s military record. Veterans are not.
In March 2014, Massie voted against a bill to name Israel an American strategic partner, which passed 412–10. We have 22 major non-NATO allies and of course 31 NATO partners.
In May 2017, he was the sole House member to vote against sanctions on North Korea.
In July 2019, Massie was the only Republican among 17 members of Congress to vote against a House resolution opposing efforts to boycott Israel and the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
In November 2019, he was the sole no vote in Congress on the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019. I must admit publicly standing up for Red China is impressive. Most fellow travelers hide it.
In September 2021, he was the only Republican to vote against $1 billion of funding for Israel’s Iron Dome.
The pattern is clear. He hates Israel and Jack Nicklaus but totally supports Red China in some sort of bizarre claim to libertarianism.
Oh and remember on February 2, 2023, when the House voted 218–211 to remove Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Thomas Massie did not vote. I should not be surprised to find a libertarian who is OK with marrying your sister.
His call for impeaching Hegseth reveals Massie’s opposition to the war on drugs. Rather than work to change the law as a principled person would do, Massie seeks the dangerous route of picking and choosing which laws to enforce when. This gives authoritarian powers to the chief executive.
President Biden’s decision to raid President Trump’s home was simply evil because there were no classified documents there because Trump de-classified them as president.
The libertarian call to legalize illicit drugs comes without changing the law just as the communist call to ignore immigration law comes without changing the law. The reason is the same in both cases. Legalizing heroin and opening our borders are unpopular and disastrous policies.
But peddling street drugs is big money and in recent years, bankers have had no qualms about laundering drug money. Via Grok:
In 2010, Wachovia (now part of Wells Fargo) entered a deferred prosecution agreement after failing to monitor roughly $378 billion in transactions with Mexican casas de cambio (currency exchanges). This included bulk cash and wires tied to Mexican and Colombian cartels. Authorities linked at least $110 million in forfeited funds to narcotics proceeds; some money bought aircraft used to traffic cocaine. The bank admitted willful AML program failures.
This year, Bank of America faced coordinated penalties totaling about $1.21 billion (including a $1.2 billion FinCEN civil penalty, with credit for a large OCC fine) for willful Bank Secrecy Act violations. Failures included inadequate monitoring and late or missing suspicious activity reports on more than $5 billion in activity. Regulators highlighted Chinese money-laundering networks and illicit finance along the U.S. southwest border (tied to narcotics/fentanyl precursor flows and trade-based schemes).
No one went to prison. That’s how it works. 80,000 drug overdose deaths a year and you just pay a fine for enabling it.
Calling the arrest of a druglord the “kidnapping of a sovereign foreign leader” is the hyperbole of a blogger, not the somber and serious thinking expected from a Member of Congress. I am pretty sure the Founding Fathers reserved impeachment for removing an official who was bribed or embezzled and not just someone with whom you disagree.
I doubt anyone bought off Massie. He seems honest enough. But the question I raise is cui bono—who benefits from his opposition to enforcing drug laws? He may not believe he represents the druglords, but they benefit from his form of libertarianism, not the people.
Which is why the people of Kentucky dumped him.
And that dumping is the reason he filed these bizarre articles of impeachment.
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This article first appeared on Don Surber’s Substack. Reprinted here with permission.
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