Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) offered an unusual cross-party endorsement Wednesday, calling Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) “such a voice of courage” one day after Massie publicly called for the impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Jayapal made the remark during an appearance on MS NOW’s “State of Play,” where host Peter Alexander asked whether she would support impeaching Hegseth if Democrats win back the House in the next election. According to clips flagged by Breitbart News, Jayapal did not give a flat yes, but made clear she sees removal of the defense secretary as a live possibility.
“I think that impeachment of Secretary Hegseth and many of the cabinet members is always an option,” Jayapal said. “What we need to do is make sure that the Senate is able to follow through with conviction.”
Massie’s Break With His Party
Alexander opened the segment by noting that Massie, a Kentucky Republican, had “surprised his party” by calling for Hegseth’s impeachment. The host played a clip of Massie speaking on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, in which Massie rattled off a list of grievances against the defense secretary.
“Whether it’s Venezuela, Yemen, Iran, targeting of civilians in Iran or, you know, squashing the First Amendment rights of Senator Mike Kelly, and Venezuela—going in and kidnapping a head of state,” Massie said, describing Hegseth as having “racked up the most trophies, if trophies are violations of the Constitution.”
Massie’s decision to break ranks and call for a fellow Republican administration’s cabinet secretary to be impeached is the kind of move that has made him a frequent outlier in his conference. First elected in a 2012 special election, Massie has built a reputation as a libertarian-leaning contrarian, voting against his party on surveillance, spending, and war powers issues. His call for Hegseth’s removal lands as a notable escalation, given that Hegseth leads a department Massie’s own party controls.
Jayapal Praises Massie Despite Disagreements
Jayapal’s praise for Massie was notably warm, given the ideological distance between the two lawmakers. She acknowledged that they disagree on plenty but stressed the work they have done together, pointing to Massie’s role as a sponsor of her legislation to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force.
“First of all, is such a voice of courage,” Jayapal said of Massie. “For all the things we disagree on, we have done so much work together. He’s also the sponsor of my legislation to repeal the 2001 AUMF. This is bipartisan legislation that presidents on both sides continue to use to go to war.”
The 2001 AUMF, passed in the days after the September 11 attacks, has been used by administrations of both parties to authorize military operations far beyond its original target. Repealing or replacing it has been a long-running goal for a coalition of antiwar lawmakers on the right and left, and the Jayapal-Massie partnership reflects that unusual alignment.
Jayapal Points to Senate Hurdle
Jayapal also used the question to revisit the two House impeachments of President Donald Trump, arguing that the Senate’s failure to convict in either case is the reason impeachment talk now runs into skepticism.
“As you know, we impeached the president twice in the House of Representatives,” she said. “And the Senate, led by Mitch McConnell, refused to do anything about it, which is why we are in the position we’re in right now.”
Her emphasis on the Senate’s role suggests that, in her view, even a successful House impeachment of Hegseth would be unlikely to result in removal unless the political arithmetic in the upper chamber changes. That is a practical note in a segment otherwise dominated by the spectacle of a Republican calling for a Republican defense secretary’s impeachment.
What happens next is unclear. Massie’s call does not by itself force any vote, and House Republican leaders have shown no appetite for taking up impeachment against a secretary in their own president’s cabinet. But the exchange on MS NOW illustrates how the potential for impeachment proceedings against Hegseth and other cabinet officials is becoming part of the background conversation heading into the next election cycle, with at least one prominent Democrat declining to rule it out.
For Jayapal, the appearance also served as a reminder of her working relationship with Massie, a lawmaker whose willingness to buck his own leadership on war powers and civil liberties has occasionally put him alongside Democrats on high-profile votes. Whether that partnership extends to impeaching a defense secretary remains an open question—but Jayapal did not foreclose it.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2026/09/16/rep-jayapal-thomas-massie-is-such-a-voice-of-courage/