House Republican leaders narrowly blocked an impeachment resolution against War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday, using a procedural maneuver to prevent the effort from reaching a final vote. The victory shelves the resolution for now, sparing GOP lawmakers from immediately deciding whether Hegseth should be removed.

The House voted 211 to 204 to refer the impeachment resolution to the Judiciary Committee. That move effectively buried the proposal rather than allowing the full chamber to debate and vote on its eight articles.

Rep. Thomas Massie was the only Republican who joined Democrats in trying to keep the resolution alive. Massie spearheaded the impeachment drive, but the referral denied him the opportunity to force a vote on Hegseth’s removal.

Republicans had worried that attendance problems might allow Democrats to prevail. Instead, more Democratic lawmakers than Republicans were absent Tuesday, giving GOP leaders enough room to block the resolution despite their narrow majority.

The attendance math also means the impeachment effort could return on a day when Democrats have more favorable numbers. Another opportunity could come after Democrats take control of the House in January following their midterm election victories.

For the moment, the result brought relief to Speaker Mike Johnson after the Republican Party’s crushing losses the previous week. Johnson told MS NOW on Tuesday that he was confident Republicans had enough votes, and the final tally proved him correct.

The procedural win also offered a display of support for President Donald Trump, who aggressively defended Hegseth against the charges. In a series of Truth Social posts, Trump said Hegseth “should be praised, not impeached,” and awarded him an “‘A’ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS” for his press conference responding to the effort.

Massie’s eight impeachment articles accused the Pentagon secretary of several serious acts. Those allegations included waging war against Iran without congressional authorization, ordering extrajudicial killings connected to boat strikes in the Caribbean, and participating in the kidnapping of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Hegseth responded during a rare Tuesday morning press conference while appealing directly to Trump. He described Massie as a “disgruntled congressman” and dismissed the impeachment effort as a “political spectacle.”

The War Secretary also invoked Trump’s familiar rhetoric by referring to the so called “perfect call” with Ukraine. That call served as a central piece of evidence during Democrats’ first impeachment of Trump.

Before Tuesday’s vote, Massie tried to persuade retiring Republican lawmakers that the impeachment effort gave them a chance to rein in Trump and Hegseth. Most Republicans remained unconvinced and backed the leadership’s plan to sideline the resolution.

Rep. Mike Lawler, who lost his reelection bid in New York, told MS NOW by text message that he opposed the process. “There have been no hearings, no investigations, no opportunity for the Secretary to answer the charges (whatever they are),” Lawler wrote, adding, “One member should not be foisting this upon the entire Congress.”

Blocking the resolution did not mean every House Republican approved of Hegseth’s performance. “I think he should resign,” one House Republican, granted anonymity because the lawmaker was not ready to take a public position, told MS NOW the previous week.

“He needs to have the honor and the integrity of knowing that he’s done a bad job in service to the country in this particular position, and he needs to resign and save face,” that Republican said. A second anonymous GOP lawmaker said “there’s a ton of members that have been wanting to take this vote, and we don’t have that big of a majority.”

That private dissatisfaction failed to produce enough public support to advance impeachment. Republican leaders instead managed to scuttle Massie’s effort one week after voters handed the party a sweeping rebuke tied to concerns about the cost of living and the Iran war, which Democrats connected to fuel prices.

Voters gave Democrats control of both the House and Senate for the following year. Democrats are already considering ways to end the Iran conflict before gaining committee gavels, including using the Dec. 11 government funding deadline and Dec. 31 annual defense bill deadline as leverage.