WASHINGTON ― Republicans defeated an effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday by using a procedural vote to derail an impeachment resolution by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).
The House voted 211 to 204 to refer Massie’s resolution to a committee. Massie was the only Republican who voted in favor, and a whopping 11 Democrats didn’t even show up ― they would have been more than enough to have changed the outcome.
The no-shows are an embarrassment for House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) as he and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) face questions from progressive voters about whether they should remain as House and Senate leaders next year.
The liberal group Demand Progress called the vote an unacceptable failure.
“Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump can breathe a sigh of relief tonight thanks to House Democratic leadership,” Demand Progress director Sean Vitka said in a statement.
Spokespeople for Jeffries did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson said on social media that if the missing Democrats had shown up, Republicans would have simply held the vote open until the seven Republicans who hadn’t voted could make it to the floor.
Massie’s resolution accused Hegseth of illegally conducting President Donald Trump’s war in Iran without congressional authorization.
The eight impeachment articles also accused Hegseth of “high crimes and misdemeanors” for illegally abducting Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, killing supposed drug traffickers and violating the free speech rights of a Democratic senator.
Many Republicans blamed the war for their blowout loss in last week’s midterm elections, and there had been widespread speculation that Massie’s resolution could win agreement in the House and even force the Senate to hold an impeachment trial. Ultimately, however, Republicans stuck by their president once again, and only seven Republicans missed the vote, despite concerns about GOP attendance in the lame-duck session of Congress.
House rules allow a single lawmaker to trigger a vote on an impeachment resolution. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) opted to have the House take a procedural vote that effectively blocked the resolution.
Hegseth called a rare Pentagon press conference on Tuesday and said Massie was merely “disgruntled” because Trump pushed him out of Congress by supporting a Republican primary challenger who will take over his seat next year.
“For the first time in American history, a cabinet Secretary overseeing America’s military is being attacked not for losing conflicts with our enemies, but for winning them, condemned not for defeat but for military victory,” Hegseth said. “No failure here, just impeachment for success.”
Trump said repeatedly the Iran war would last a few weeks, but it’s dragged on since February with no end in sight. Iran has retaliated by preventing oil tankers from transiting the Strait of Hormuz, restricting the global oil supply and jacking up gas prices in the U.S.
Massie has repeatedly irked the president by taking high-profile votes against bills he wanted Republicans to pass. Trump called him a “loser” on Monday.
Still, the prospect of a successful vote loomed so large that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday said Senate Republicans should “put Pete Hegseth on trial” if the House approved the resolution.
“Trump’s disastrous war in Iran will go down as one of the greatest foreign policy fiascoes in all of American history,” Schumer said.
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said he was surprised no Republicans joined Massie.
“I’m surprised, but I also have stopped really hoping for them to do the right thing and holding my breath, which is why they just got crushed by America,” Crow told HuffPost.
One Democrat who missed the vote, Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), claimed in a statement she was “blocked from entering the Capitol” because of “a traffic incident and a police escort of a bus during the vote.” Another Democrat, Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), also said on social media he got caught in the bus traffic.
The source of the offending traffic wasn’t immediately clear, but HuffPost observed a police escort for coach buses carrying new members of Congress arriving at the east front plaza of the Capitol.