Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced a measure to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday, roughly one week after the unpopular Iran war the Pentagon chief championed fueled a midterm defeat for President Donald Trump’s Republican Party.

Massie launched his new bid to oust Hegseth as the House of Representatives resumed work following the midterm elections. He posted his resolution outlining charges against Trump’s defense secretary on social media earlier in the day, and introducing the measure on Monday sets up a floor vote on the motion as soon as Wednesday.

“The reality is, we’re not indicting him for being bad at his job. In fact, he was very effective at killing school children in Iran,” Massie told reporters Monday. “He was very effective at extrajudicial killings. There’s no argument in these impeachment articles that he’s ineffective. The argument here is that he’s broken laws, and he’s violated the Constitution. And so, that’s the question put in front of my colleagues.”

Massie, who is retiring at the end of the year, is accusing Hegseth of waging the Iran war without congressional authorization, committing extrajudicial killings through strikes on alleged drug boats, ignoring laws designed to minimize civilian casualties including with a strike on an Iranian school, and unlawfully kidnapping a foreign leader — Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.

“He has violated the norms of war, and it’s to the disadvantage and the dishonor of our country, and to the danger of our soldiers,” Massie said at a news conference hours after filing the impeachment resolution

Massie complained about Hegseth ordering a second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Carribean when survivors were clinging to wreckage and said that ignoring international law encourages U.S. adversaries to do the same.

Hegseth has been the Trump administration’s most prominent and enthusiastic cheerleader for the unpopular conflict in Iran, which spiked energy prices, fueled global inflation and eventually doomed Republicans in the midterm vote on Nov. 3.

Massie’s resolution is similar to his previous impeachment effort, which was thwarted ahead of the midterm election when House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed lawmakers just one day after it was introduced.

Speaking on Monday, Johnson called Massie’s effort a “cheap trick,” adding that “it would be a terrible thing for our allies and enemies to see that.”

The motion, which comes before the Democrats take over the House and Senate in January, may pass the House but is unlikely to make it through the still Republican-controlled Senate.

Hegseth is scheduled to brief reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday in what is expected to be a rebuttal to Massie’s charges. Last week, Hegseth posted a six-minute video on X defending his tenure, calling Massie a “disgruntled, defeated congressman” who has filed “sham articles of impeachment against yours truly.”

Hegseth’s tenure has been marked by numerous controversies, most notably the Iran war and the legally questionable strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. He’s also been criticized for pushing out high-ranking officers, rhetorical attacks on “woke” diversity initiatives and transgender troops and the rapid depletion of key munitions as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.

He’s also irritated key members of Congress with his lack of transparency to them and the U.S. public about the progress of the war, its cost and its casualties.

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