Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) has repeatedly said Democrats will “run Pete Hegseth out of town.” But in their first opportunity to impeach the defense secretary on Tuesday, 11 Democrats missed a key procedural vote — and Hegseth was spared, at least for now.
House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Massachusetts) addressed the absences during a meeting with Democrats on Wednesday, as the lawmakers who missed the vote faced backlash.
Democrats had disappointed the American people by not having all their members present to vote for the impeachment effort, she said. The effort was led by outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky). Clark’s comments were shared by a House Democrat and a House Democratic aide, speaking under condition of anonymity to freely discuss the Wednesday meeting.
Even so, if all Democrats in Washington had been present in the House chamber, the party still would not have been able to beat Republicans’ effort to sideline the impeachment, Clark reasoned. As whip, Clark is in charge of counting votes for the Democratic caucus. She is poised to become the majority leader in the next Congress.
Clark’s defense came as Democrats faced accusations that the outcome might have been different had some of them not been held up while returning to the Capitol from an off-campus fundraiser.
By a 211-204 vote, Republican lawmakers banded together Tuesday to block a vote on Massie’s impeachment articles, instead referring them to committee for further study. Massie was the only Republican to vote with Democrats.
Eleven Democrats missed the vote, with at least two lawmakers — Reps. Laura Gillen (New York) and Melanie Stansbury (New Mexico) — blaming their absences in part on a “traffic incident” in Washington.
Stansbury, who co-sponsored a previous effort to impeach Hegseth, posted a four-minute apology video.
“I am so sorry,” she said, with emotion. “There is no one who is more disappointed in myself than me that I was not here the moment that gavel dropped.” But she also pointed out that Democrats would not have had the numbers, and she said that they would impeach Hegseth once they hold the majority.
In a floor speech Wednesday, Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nevada) said he missed the vote because of a personal emergency. “I take full responsibility,” he said. “The accountability I demand of others applies to me too.” He submitted his position into the congressional record.
Some implied that it was Republicans’ fault they had missed the vote. Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colorado), who was also caught in traffic outside the Capitol, claimed in a social media post she was “denied the ability to vote.”
“Republican leadership cynically chose to close the vote with nearly two dozen members still not voting — and just as Pettersen was reaching the chamber,” her office said.
Leaders of both parties often hold votes open for members who are on their way to the Hill, as a courtesy.
Rep. Julia Brownley (D-California) posted that as she and others were rushing to vote, “Mike Johnson closed the vote before we could.”
Republicans had held the 15-minute vote open for around 27 minutes.
In theory, the resolution could have passed if eight of the 11 Democrats who missed the vote would have supported it.
But there were absences on both sides of the aisle, complicating the math.
Based on attendance at later votes, Republicans, who hold a narrow majority in the chamber, had more lawmakers in Washington than Democrats. If Republican leaders had kept the Hegseth vote open long enough, they would have had enough members nearby to sideline’s Massie’s measure, assuming they would have voted with their party — even if the seven Democrats who voted on other measures Tuesday had been present.
Four Democrats, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (California) missed all Tuesday votes. Pelosi was attending a Veterans Day event in California, according to her office. Another member who missed the vote, Rep. Lou Correa (D-California), is away from Congress due to a health issue.
If the vote had gone the other way, lawmakers were planning to hold a final impeachment vote on Hegseth on Wednesday.
Instead, days after winning a historic election, Democrats are already facing criticism. George Conway, a prominent critic of President Donald Trump, shared a post on X suggesting that the Massie effort failed because the Democrats who missed the vote were at a fundraiser thrown by Clark.
Two people familiar with the event who spoke under condition of anonymity to be candid confirmed that some of the members who missed the vote were coming from the event thrown by Elect Democratic Women, a political action committee focused on getting Democratic women elected to Congress. Clark is a founding member.
According to an aide at Wednesday’s meeting, Clark emphasized the importance of showing up for votes, both during the lame duck session and when Democrats hold the majority in January.
Speaking to reporters about the situation Wednesday, Jeffries said Democrats remained “committed” to ensuring Hegseth is removed from office. He did not address questions about the event that may have led some members to miss the vote.
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