It looked like it could be a huge win for Democrats. Then it turned into a huge embarrassment.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth narrowly avoided an up-or-down vote on his impeachment Tuesday, after all but one Republican voted to kill the effort, 211-204.
But the outcome could have been different with better attendance: Had the 11 Democrats who missed the vote been there and sided with the party, the impeachment resolution would have advanced, setting up votes on punishing the embattled defense secretary.
Many of the 11 have since put out statements explaining their absence, including a prior commitment, a surgery and, for at least six lawmakers, a traffic incident involving a police-escorted bus that prevented them from making it to the Capitol in time.
But the missed votes — and subsequent explanations — have prompted a firestorm in Democratic circles, with scores of lawmakers and onlookers saying there is no excuse for missing such a critical vote.
“We knew that this vote was coming, so people should have gotten their raggedy selves up these steps to vote,” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., said Tuesday night. “There is no reason why we should have lost this vote because of attendance issues.”
“Shame on folks who were not here,” she added. “Because these people [Republicans] lost. They lost and they still found a way to show up to table this bill. Shameful.”
Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., said she wouldn’t “throw stones” about Democrats missing the vote, but she said Democrats have to do better.
“Democrats need to show up in a different way and make sure that we are early for every single vote and we don’t give them a freaking inch,” she told MS NOW.
Asked if the failure to beat the GOP procedural motion was a leadership failure, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., called it “unacceptable.”
“The good news is that we’ve got a 30-member majority coming in where we can’t keep playing hokeypokey like this anymore and everyone’s going to have to be very transparent about where they stand,” she said.
The failed vote — and intraparty recriminations that have followed — comes at an inopportune moment for Democrats, who were riding high after their midterm wins last week and are gearing up to take control of the House in January.
At a time when their focus should be on planning for the future, Democrats are looking backward and pointing fingers.
In one group chat of House Democrats, a lawmaker asked who the 11 Democrats were and why they didn’t vote, contending that it made the party look bad, according to a House Democrat who requested anonymity to discuss the private conversation. The text was sent before the list of absences was known.
One of the 11 identified themselves and explained what happened, the source said. Then a lawmaker responded and said that everyone had to be at the Capitol for votes, according to the source.
During a whips meeting Wednesday morning, Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., the House minority whip, said Democrats disappointed the American people by not having everyone at the Capitol to vote, a senior House Democratic aide told MS NOW, also requesting anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the private meeting.
Clark did, however, note that even if there were full attendance — if all 11 Democrats and seven Republicans who missed the vote were present — the motion would still have failed, since not enough GOP lawmakers crossed the aisle, the aide said.
One of the Democrats who missed the vote, Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., spoke on the House floor about his absence, citing a “personal emergency” and saying he took “full accountability” for having missed the vote.
“The accountability I demand of others applies to me, too,” Horsford said.
One notable absence has drawn major scrutiny: Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
In a statement, her office told MS NOW that the California Democrat had returned to San Francisco for an event honoring veterans, which they called “a longstanding district tradition she regularly attends and marked for the last time as a Member of Congress.”
“Speaker Emerita Pelosi supports impeaching Secretary Hegseth and would have voted ‘No’ on the motion to refer,” the statement added.
Other Democrats who missed the vote have also gone on the defensive. Democratic Reps. Julia Brownley of California, Laura Gillen of New York, Jonathan Jackson of Illinois, Brittany Pettersen of Colorado, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico and Marilyn Strickland of Washington, all said they were stuck in traffic, with many coming from a reception across town celebrating the election of female lawmakers.
“Like other Members of Congress, Rep. Stansbury was blocked from entering the Capitol to vote due a traffic incident and a police escort of a bus during the vote. When she reached the chamber the vote had just gaveled out,” Stansbury said in a post on X.
Brownley told MS NOW she ran out of her car when it became clear the traffic wasn’t moving, but she still missed the vote. The 74-year-old congresswoman said when she told Clark that she wasn’t able to vote, the Democratic whip said “I’m sorry,” an apology that Brownley returned for being late.
But that reasoning is also facing scrutiny.
A community note was attached to X posts from Jackson, Gillen and Stansbury noting that “Despite this ‘traffic incident’, 415 other members of the House were able to appear to vote,” and that the date and time of the vote were known ahead of time.
While Democrats have complained that Republicans closed the vote once it became clear the House GOP had the votes to prevail, the 15-minute vote was held open for more than half an hour, giving absent lawmakers additional time to make it to the chamber.
Other House Democrats are leaning in. In response to a post on X listing the 11 Democratic absences, Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y. — who made it to the vote — said he went to great lengths to be there.
“Actually, I had back surgery yesterday and checked myself out of the hospital this morning to make sure I voted to IMPEACH Hegseth. He’s the most incompetent & immoral SecDef in history and he needs to go!” Ryan wrote on X.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who lost a primary for Senate and won’t be returning to Congress next year, also said she was at the same event as the Democrats who missed the vote. When she saw traffic ahead, she told MS NOW she rerouted and even made an action plan in case she needed to get out of the car and run to the Capitol.
“No matter what, I wasn’t going to allow traffic to keep me from that vote,” Crockett said. “It was just that important to me.”
Asked about the episode Wednesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said he had spoken to some, but not all, of the Democrats who missed the vote.
Jeffries also made it clear that the failed procedural vote wouldn’t end Democratic efforts to hold Hegseth accountable.
“Pete Hegseth has got to go,” Jeffries said. “And we’re committed to making sure that that happens.”
Nour Longi contributed to this report.
The post ‘Shame on folks who were not here’: A failed vote on Hegseth’s impeachment turns into a Democratic debacle appeared first on MS NOW.
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