Hegseth Impeachment Effort Dies 211-204 as 11 Absent Democrats Miss the House Vote

An effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth died in the U.S. House of Representatives this week by a vote of 211 to 204. Instead of holding a straight up-or-down vote on the articles brought by Republican Representative Thomas Massie, the House voted to send them to the Judiciary Committee.

Republicans moved to block the direct impeachment vote by forcing the referral vote. According to the report, the articles would go to the committee to die there. Had the House failed to sidetrack them, members would then have voted on impeachment itself.

A simple majority vote to impeach would have made Hegseth only the third cabinet secretary ever impeached by the House, joining 19th-century Secretary of War William Belknap and former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Attendance decided the outcome. At one point the tally stood at 204-204, and by rule a tie vote fails, which would have compelled a vote on actual impeachment. A few more Republicans then trickled in to the floor.

Republicans had their own attendance problem, with seven of their members missing. But 11 Democrats never made the roll call. Representative Dan Newhouse, who presided, gaveled the vote closed at 211 votes to send the articles to committee and 204 against.

The math was tight: flipping four votes would have impeached Hegseth 208-207. Had all 11 absent Democrats reached the Capitol and voted, the House would likely have impeached him 215-211, and even eight of them would have made it 212-211.

The failure fueled anger inside the Democratic Party. Representative-elect Richard Ojeda said, 'Shame on them for not showing up,' while Representative Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts said he makes no excuses for colleagues who miss such an important vote.

Several of the absent members blamed traffic. Melanie Stansbury said a police motorcade had shut down traffic and left her physically trapped in her vehicle at a street corner. Jonathan Jackson and Laura Gillen also said they were stuck in traffic.

Others were absent for different reasons. Lou Correa was out for a medical procedure, Steve Horsford missed the vote because of a personal emergency, and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in California.

Traffic interfered again on Thursday morning, when the House adopted a motion related to a veterans bill by 271-135 with 26 members absent, after a lockdown stalled traffic across parts of the capital.