The vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to avoid shelving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s impeachment failed. It failed because Democrats failed to show up,[1] despite receiving a clear mandate to end Donald Trump’s utterly foolish, utterly failed war on Iran in the midterm elections.[2]
That war is so utterly foolish, so utterly failed that the U.S. Air Force is withdrawing from bases as far away as in the United Kingdom because they can’t defend those bases against suspected Iranian threats.[3]
But the Democrats are back to their usual games, demonstrating yet again how very much they prefer to sit in opposition where they can complain about Republicans without ever being expected to actually accomplish anything. The excuses?
“[Marilyn] Strickland, [Jonathan] Jackson, [Melanie] Stansbury and [Laura] Gillen all blamed a traffic delay in Washington, DC.
“[Nancy] Pelosi said she was in her home state for a veterans event while [Lou] Correa said he was in California before undergoing a health procedure. [Steven] Horsford’s office cited a personal emergency.
“[Brittany] Pettersen, who said she helped introduce articles of impeachment against Hegseth in April, said she had been “denied the ability to vote on this motion” without elaborating.
“Jackson, Stansbury, Gillen, Strickland, Horsford, Pelosi and Pettersen all said they would have joined their Democratic colleagues in opposing the measure. Jackson and Stansbury also said they had formally recorded their opposition in the Congressional Record although this does not change the official vote count.
“There was no immediate comment from [Haley] Stevens, [Julia] Brownley or [Frederica] Wilson on their absences. . . .
“Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove from California said: ‘We knew that this vote was coming, so people should have gotten their raggedy selves up these steps to vote.’
“‘There is no reason why we should have lost this vote because of attendance issues,’ she added.”[4]
But, as we have repeatedly seen with Democrats, they always have excuses. Expect more of the same in the next Congress.
[1] Al Jazeera, “Did Democrats save Pete Hegseth from impeachment?” November 11, 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/11/did-democrats-save-pete-hegseth-from-impeachment
[2] Matthew Duss, “Democrats Shouldn’t Squander Their Chance to Launch a Foreign Policy Revolution,” Foreign Affairs, November 6, 2026, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/matthew-duss-democrats-squander-chance-foreign-policy-congress-midterms
[3] Democracy Now! “Pentagon Retreats from Second U.K. Base Due to Alleged Threat from Iran,” November 10, 2026, https://www.democracynow.org/2026/11/10/headlines/pentagon_retreats_from_second_uk_base_due_to_alleged_threat_from_iran
[4] Al Jazeera, “Did Democrats save Pete Hegseth from impeachment?” November 11, 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/11/did-democrats-save-pete-hegseth-from-impeachment