Pete Hegseth is facing renewed pressure from Capitol Hill, and the deeply inept War Secretary has few reasons to relax. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky is openly signaling that his impeachment effort could return if Hegseth remains in office.

Massie responded Monday on X to an unnamed reporter who had asked offline whether he planned to reintroduce the articles of impeachment he originally filed in September. His answer was blunt: “If he’s still SecDef,” Massie wrote.

That warning leaves the impeachment articles waiting in the wings while Hegseth continues stumbling through his tenure. A Democratic House would be far less hospitable to him, particularly if Massie has already reopened the door from the Republican side.

Massie has persistently pushed to remove Hegseth, and his time in Congress ends in January. He also successfully spearheaded the effort to release the Epstein files, leaving another attempt to impeach Hegseth as a possible final official act.

There is certainly no shortage of material behind the pressure. The case against Hegseth stretches from the illegal war in Iran and the Caribbean boat strikes, which Massie called “extrajudicial killings,” to retaliation against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.

The list also includes the kidnapping of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Taken together, the conduct described in the impeachment argument presents Hegseth as a walking collection of high crimes and misdemeanors, with plenty of oily hair gel holding the mess together.

Hegseth’s basic performance in office has hardly offered him shelter from the gathering storm. Early in his tenure came Signalgate, an episode that would have ended a career in an administration with anything resembling normal standards.

As the illegal war in Iran continued, Hegseth also tried to conceal how many munitions he had wasted. In a competent administration, munitions shortages and efforts to obscure them would have brought a swift exit rather than another round of excuses.

Instead of addressing those shortages, Hegseth has spent his time pushing Congress to rename his agency the belligerent “Department of War.” It is exactly the sort of macho branding exercise that fits his tenure while leaving the actual problems untouched.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is also moving closer to supporting impeachment. Jeffries said he would “run Hegseth out of town,” offering one of his clearest warnings yet about what could await the War Secretary.

“Hegseth needs to be pushed aside by the president, or we’re going to have to deal with that situation if he is not,” Jeffries added. Democrats have little downside in committing to the fight, especially with Massie already sticking his neck out.

Hegseth appears to recognize that his current job could be slipping away. He has floated the possibility that Marsha Blackburn could appoint him to fill her Senate seat once she becomes governor of Tennessee.

Putting Hegseth in the Senate would still be an ugly reward for failure, complete with his familiar rage and posturing. Yet he might manage to do less damage there than he has in his current role overseeing the nation’s military operations.

Removing Hegseth would also create the question of who Trump might install next. If Democrats perform as hoped, Trump may struggle to push another ridiculous nominee through the Senate and could instead turn to the acting secretary maneuver.

That approach would involve placing someone in the job because the Senate had confirmed that person for an entirely different role. The possibility matters because replacing Hegseth would not guarantee anything resembling competence or restraint from the administration.

Marco Rubio is one possible choice raised for the job. Rubio has already juggled multiple administration positions, and the article describes him as every bit as bloodthirsty as Hegseth while spending little time on actual diplomacy as secretary of state.

For now, Massie’s warning ensures that Hegseth’s impeachment problem is not disappearing. Jeffries is edging toward the same confrontation, while Hegseth is apparently looking toward Tennessee for a political escape hatch before the knives finally reach him.