The House voted 211-204 to refer impeachment articles against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to committee.
The motion, offered after Rep. Thomas Massie brought six articles alleging unlawful operations involving Iran, Venezuela, and Yemen, sends the articles to the Judiciary Committee, where they are expected to die for the rest of this Congress. The official Clerk tally was 211 yeas and 204 nays, with 18 members not voting: 11 Democrats and 7 Republicans. Massie was the only Republican to vote no, and one Independent voted yes.
Some viral posts claimed that if the 11 Democrats had appeared, Hegseth would have been impeached 215-211. That is incorrect: had those Democrats voted no on the referral, the motion would have failed 211-215, leaving a floor fight possible, not a completed impeachment, and the seven missing Republicans are also part of that counterfactual.
Fellow Democrats, including Rep.-elect Richard Ojeda, Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed, and Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, publicly scolded colleagues for missing the vote, while Axios reporter Andrew Solender wrote that some members were stuck in traffic returning from an Elect Democratic Women event, and Newsweek reported Nancy Pelosi was in San Francisco receiving an award.
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