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Editor's note: This episode was recorded before Congress's vote. The impeachment was blocked 211-204. 11 Democrats and 7 Republicans missed the vote.
Congress is back. And the first thing they did was hand Pete Hegseth eight articles of impeachment.
We break down all eight charges, and they are not small. Articles one through three accuse him of waging the Iran War illegally, without congressional approval, in violation of the War Powers Act and the UN Charter. Article four: bombing a school in Iran that killed nearly 200 people, including 123 children under 13. The International Criminal Court investigated and found the strikes went "beyond negligence." Article five: ordering extrajudicial killings of 243 people in the Caribbean Sea and East Pacific, people who were never proven to be enemies of the United States, and ordering double-tap drone strikes against survivors, which is explicitly banned under international law. Article six: attempting to court-martial sitting U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain and astronaut, for making a video reminding service members they are not obligated to follow unlawful orders. Article seven: the illegal kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Article eight: unauthorized strikes in Yemen, with civilian casualties that Human Rights Watch has officially called a war crime.
Then this morning, Hegseth held a press conference. His mom was in the front row. His defense was essentially: other people got away with worse, so you have to let me go too. We talk about why that argument is not only wrong; it's the argument you make when you know you got caught.
We also get into where the votes stand, what Speaker Johnson might do with the articles if they pass, and what it means that a vote could come as soon as today.
Make It Make Sense is an independent political news show produced in Detroit. Subscribe so you don't miss what happens next, because this is moving fast.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 - Intro - Pete Hegseth's Very Bad Day
1:30 - What Are Articles of Impeachment - Quick Explainer
2:30 - The 8 Charges Against Hegseth
5:30 - The Iran War - Triply Illegal Per Yale's Oona Hathaway
7:00 - The School Bombing - ICC War Crimes Finding
9:00 - Extrajudicial Killings and Double-Tap Strikes
10:15 - Attempting to Court-Martial Senator Mark Kelly
11:15 - The Maduro Kidnapping and Yemen Strikes
12:15 - The Sweaty Press Conference - Mom in the Front Row
14:30 - The "Other People Did It" Defense - Why It Fails
16:30 - Where the Votes Stand - Republicans, Democrats, and Comer
18:30 - What Johnson Could Do - Sitting on the Articles
20:15 - The Iran Blockade Continues - Trump's Aircraft Carrier Threat
21:30 - Outro
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