On Tuesday afternoon, the House voted 211-204 to send Rep. Thomas Massie’s articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee. In plain English, that vote buried the impeachment for the rest of this Congress.

Within minutes, House Democrats posted their talking point: “Pete Hegseth is unfit and unqualified to serve as Secretary of Defense. House Republicans just chose to protect him over American servicemembers.”

Read that again. The party that posted this lost the vote by seven, and eleven of its own members weren’t in the room. If those eleven had shown up and voted no, the motion fails 215-211. You don’t get to call a vote a test of whether Congress protects servicemembers and then not show up for it. That isn’t a stand. It’s a press release.

Before you take any of it at face value, look at the roll call.

The numbers (House Clerk, Roll Call 317, H. Res. 1655). A “yes” vote sent the impeachment to committee to die. A “no” vote kept it alive:

• Republicans: 210 yes, 1 no (Massie), 7 not voting.
• Democrats: 0 yes, 203 no, 11 not voting.
• The one independent voted yes.

The eleven Democrats who weren’t there: Julia Brownley (CA), Lou Correa (CA), Laura Gillen (NY), Steven Horsford (NV), Jonathan Jackson (IL), Nancy Pelosi (CA), Brittany Pettersen (CO), Melanie Stansbury (NM), Haley Stevens (MI), Marilyn Strickland (WA), and Frederica Wilson (FL).

The excuses started falling apart the next day.

Correa had a medical procedure and wasn’t in Washington. That’s a real explanation.

Pelosi does not get the same pass. Her office said she returned to San Francisco the day of the vote for a Veterans Day event, her last as a member of Congress, and that she would have voted no. She was still a sitting member. The vote was on the calendar. A farewell event in the district is not more important than showing up for a vote her own party called a test of whether Congress protects servicemembers.

Jackson is a different story. On Tuesday night he said a traffic incident and a police-escorted bus kept him from reaching the chamber. A TMZ reporter, Charlie Cotton, says he saw Jackson on the Capitol steps around 5:57 or 5:58 p.m., filming a video that never went up, with the vote closing at 6:02. I haven’t independently verified that clip. But when Cotton confronted him the next day, Jackson didn’t deny being there. He called missing the vote “inexcusable,” still mentioned a traffic jam, and then said, “I wish I could answer you in any more detail.” He later told ABC7 Chicago he was already on the Hill and got delayed answering questions from reporters. That’s not stuck in traffic on the way in. That’s being there and not walking into the chamber.

Stansbury and Gillen still blame the same police escort. Strickland’s chief of staff told ABC News they missed it by one minute waiting for a motorcade. Pettersen said she was “denied the ability to vote” and didn’t explain. Members had known for at least 18 hours that a 5:30 p.m. vote series was on the calendar, and the vote itself, scheduled for 15 minutes, was held open for 29.

After the referral vote closed, six of the eleven made the very next vote: Brownley, Gillen, Jackson, Pettersen, Stansbury, and Strickland. Even if those six had been there, the motion still passes 211-210. Horsford made the vote after that. Stevens and Wilson still didn’t show. Stevens, a lame duck who lost her Senate primary and then endorsed the Republican in that race, skipped every Tuesday vote. Wilson missed Monday and Tuesday over health issues and was there Wednesday.

Seven Republicans skipped too: Monica De La Cruz (TX), Neal Dunn (FL), Russell Fry (SC), Julia Letlow (LA), Tom Tiffany (WI), Derrick Van Orden (WI), and Rudy Yakym (IN). If all eighteen absent members had voted with their parties, the motion still passes 218-215. And even if it had failed, impeachment would have needed its own separate vote.

And give credit where it’s due. The only Republican willing to break ranks was Thomas Massie, the guy who wrote the resolution. He did his job. He voted his conscience against his own party, and he did it on the record.

This is the part of politics I can’t stand. One side blames the other for an outcome its own absences helped produce. The other side closes ranks to avoid an uncomfortable vote. And the voter is left with a press release instead of the truth.

Here’s my ask. Don’t outsource your judgment to a party account on X, whether it’s red or blue. The roll call is public. Look up how your representative voted, or whether they bothered to vote at all. Accountability starts with showing up.

Sources:

• House Clerk Roll Call 317
• ABC News
• ABC7 Chicago (Jackson)
• TMZ
• Mediaite (Cotton confrontation)
• AP
• NBC News
• House Democrats post
• Rep. Jonathan Jackson
• Rep. Laura Gillen
• Rep. Melanie Stansbury