{"id":15591,"date":"2026-07-24T10:15:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T05:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15591"},"modified":"2026-07-24T10:15:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T05:15:05","slug":"thomas-massie-accuses-pete-hegseth-of-breaking-the-law-in-iran-war-must-be-held-accountable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15591","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Massie Accuses Pete Hegseth of \u2018BREAKING THE LAW\u2019 in Iran War: \u2018Must Be Held Accountable\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5597661\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5597661\" class=\"wp-image-5597661 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/am11.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2025\/01\/AP25007626276190-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5597661\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Williams\/CQ Roll Call via AP Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Rep. <strong>Thomas<\/strong> <strong>Massie<\/strong> (R-KY) blasted Defense Secretary <strong>Pete Hegseth<\/strong> for &#8220;BREAKING THE LAW&#8221; on Thursday, arguing President <strong>Donald Trump&#8217;s<\/strong> administration no longer has legal authority to continue military operations in Iran without congressional approval.<\/p>\n<p>Massie&#8217;s comments came via X, as he responded to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/new-bombshell-report-reveals-trump-admin-removed-us-troops-names-from-iran-casualty-list\/\">report<\/a> from <em>The New York Times<\/em> detailing, per three military officials, how the administration removed four U.S. service members <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/trump-wildly-claims-fallen-us-troops-said-very-strongly-we-cant-let-iran-have-a-nuclear-weapon\/\">killed this past weekend<\/a> from the Pentagon\u2019s public Iran war casualty count because they died after the president\u2019s April <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/trump-appears-to-add-day-to-iran-ceasefire-amid-confusion-around-talks\/\">ceasefire declaration<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Pentagon acting press secretary <strong>Joel Valdez<\/strong>, however, offered another explanation, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/23\/us\/politics\/iran-troop-deaths.html?unlocked_article_code=1.z1A.tEg0.Q-cw8cUlwBvw&amp;smid=url-share\">telling<\/a> the <em>Times<\/em> the change stemmed from \u201ctemporary data disruptions\u201d and \u201canomalies\u201d affecting the website that he said would soon be corrected.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Let me explain this absurd ruse,&#8221; Massie wrote on Thursday. &#8220;The Pentagon is pretending there have been two Iran wars separated by a brief cease-fire.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed_container\" id=\"dc66893ce4dc2fbaf974dbec15c4bb70\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Let me explain this absurd ruse: The Pentagon is pretending there have been two Iran wars separated by a brief cease-fire.<\/p>\n<p>The reality: By going more than 90 days without congressional authorization <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SecWar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SecWar<\/a> IS BREAKING THE LAW and must be held accountable. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SuHcGkJcD3\">https:\/\/t.co\/SuHcGkJcD3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepThomasMassie\/status\/2080462422838505555?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 24, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;The reality,&#8221; he explained, is that &#8220;by going more than 90 days without congressional authorization [Hegseth] IS BREAKING THE LAW and must be held accountable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/crs-product\/IF13134\">War Powers Resolution<\/a> of 1973, a president must end unauthorized U.S. military involvement within 60 days, with up to 30 additional days permitted to safely withdraw American forces, unless Congress declares war or otherwise authorizes the operation.<\/p>\n<p>The war in Iran <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/iran-us-timeline-trump-hormuz-war-ceasefire-04da58cbae991183f8b52ef5bf615963\">began<\/a> Feb. 28; a tentative ceasefire was reached in April, and then broken in June. Since then, the U.S. and Iran have continued to exchange deadly military strikes.<\/p>\n<p>Also on Thursday, Massie, along with fellow Republican Reps. <strong>Brian Fitzpatrick<\/strong> (R-PA), <strong>Tom Barrett<\/strong> (R-MI) and <strong>Warren<\/strong> <strong>Davidson<\/strong> (R-OH) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/just-in-four-republicans-join-democrats-in-vote-to-halt-iran-war-in-rebuke-of-trump\/\">crossed party lines<\/a> in a vote to restrict Trump\u2019s war powers. The measure passed through the House \u2014 for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/06\/03\/nx-s1-5845102\/house-iran-war-powers-vote\">second time<\/a> \u2014 with a vote of 214 to 208.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/07\/23\/nx-s1-5904515\/congress-iran-war-powers-vote\">explained<\/a> by NPR&#8217;s <strong>Claudia Grisales<\/strong>, &#8220;while it is not legally binding, the resolution represents a symbolic rebuke&#8221; towards Trump.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate, on the other hand, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/congress\/house-votes-end-iran-war-senate-republicans-let-trump-continue-war-rcna588874\">voted<\/a> 47-49 Thursday to defeat a joint resolution that would have legally required an end to the war in Iran, though it still would have been subject to a presidential veto.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/thomas-massie-accuses-pete-hegseth-of-breaking-the-law-in-iran-war-must-be-held-accountable\/\">Thomas Massie Accuses Pete Hegseth of \u2018BREAKING THE LAW\u2019 in Iran War: \u2018Must Be Held Accountable\u2019<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\">Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Williams\/CQ Roll Call via AP Images Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) blasted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for &#8220;BREAKING THE LAW&#8221; on Thursday, arguing President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration no longer has legal authority to continue military operations in Iran without congressional approval. Massie&#8217;s comments came via X, as he responded to a report from The New&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/am11.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2025\/01\/AP25007626276190-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}