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Speaker Johnson recesses the House early as Rep. Thomas Massie pushes Hegseth impeachment
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Mike Johnson is closing up the House early, sending lawmakers home Wednesday to campaign for the midterm elections after what he claims is the most productive Congress in decades.
But not without a scathing rebuke from GOP Rep. Thomas Massie for all the unfinished business.
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Massie’s resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the war in Iran and his bipartisan effort to force the release of more files in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation are all being left behind, blocked from votes.
“We're calling off Congress? And we’re in the majority?” Massie railed from the House floor.
“I’m trying to get justice for the Epstein survivors,” he said. “I'm trying to stop a war.”
Massie, the renegade Republican from Kentucky, seized control of the chamber for a blistering hourlong speech criticizing Johnson, the Republican majority and the work he said the speaker is refusing to conduct to lower prices for Americans and hold the Trump administration accountable.
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“Why would we be canceling days when the country is burning?” Massie said. “We should stay here for every day that's on the calendar and we should debate.”
Johnson insisted “the House has done its job."
The Republican speaker tallied the hundreds of bills passed by the House this session and, as lawmakers bolted for the exits, said they are on a 48-hour notice to return to Washington if needed.
Earlier in the day, he dismissed Massie’s effort to impeach Hegseth as “a stunt.”
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“Secretary Hegseth has done an extraordinary job at the Department of War,” Johnson said.
A fitting end to a tumultuous House session
The afternoon showdown provided a colorful capstone to what has been a tumultuous two-year session of House Republicans in control by a bare majority, with Johnson routinely struggling to keep the place running.
Despite the enormous tools of the gavel — the speaker holds one of the most powerful positions in Washington, second in the line of succession to the president — Johnson has often been thwarted by his own conference.
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The speaker has repeatedly and abruptly canceled House voting days to send lawmakers home rather than manage the disruptions from his own rebellious flank — particularly those legislative efforts that threatened to rebuke President Donald Trump.
By one tally, the House has cut 28 days this year, while adding four others, for a net loss of 24 days — about one-fourth of the total scheduled.
Still, Johnson has hauled major legislation to the finish line, most notably the “Big Beautiful Bill,” a package of tax breaks and social service cuts that Trump signed into law last summer.
And on Wednesday the House powered through a full agenda, passing bills large and small — including a sweeping bill to impose sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, and another to name the American mastodon the national fossil mammal and the Tyrannosaurus Rex the national fossil dinosaur.
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“This has literally been the most productive and successful and aggressive Congress” in decades, he said earlier this month, calling it the top five of all time. “We’re confident American voters are going to remember that when they head to vote this fall.”
Voters will be assessing the situation in November as they decide whether to keep Trump’s party in power, while Democrats work to dislodge Republicans from majority control of both the House and the Senate.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries assailed the “do-nothing” Republican majority and promised Democrats will perform better.
“Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans promised to bring down grocery prices on Day One. They promised to stop endless wars in the Middle East,” Jeffries said from the steps of the Capitol, flanked by Democratic lawmakers.
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“But Republicans have done nothing to make life more affordable for the American people,” he said.
He said Democrats’ message is a simple one: “We hear you. We see you … And we are committed to making life better for you.”
Massie's last stand
The confrontation also provided a platform for Massie, the libertarian-leaning go-his-own-way congressman who orchestrated the initial release of the Epstein files and helped lead efforts to halt the conflict in Iran through a war powers resolution.
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Massie lost his own primary bid for reelection after Trump mounted a costly campaign to kick him out of Congress.
But the congressman has only appeared emboldened in his final days in office.
Massie spent much of his floor speech assailing Johnson's leadership and decrying what he calls the “uniparty,” which he characterizes as moving in lockstep with big-money special interests at home and abroad.
He also devoted substantial time to criticizing Hegseth and the “stupid war” he said the U.S. should not be involved with in Iran. Deriding Hegseth's leadership, he mocked the secretary for trying to rename the Defense Department as the Department of War without consulting Congress.
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“Hell, you can't even rename a post office without us,” he said.
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Hegseth's role in sending the U.S. into the Iran wars without approval of Congress and directing the U.S.'s military strikes of alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean are among the actions Massie characterized as high crimes and misdemeanors in the articles of impeachment against the Defense secretary.
Massie said he knew when he landed in Washington that he would stand apart.
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“I'm not playing this game,” he said. “I am going to tell people what is going on up here.”