Democratic lawmakers expressed outrage at nearly a dozen of their colleagues for missing a vote Tuesday evening to impeach the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, allowing Republicans to defeat the effort.

Eleven Democrats missed the key procedural vote on the impeachment effort, which failed by just seven votes. Some blamed traffic and conflicting events and others accused Speaker Mike Johnson of closing the vote early. Many of those not in the Capitol said they support the effort to impeach Hegseth.

“You should show up and do your job,” Abdul El-Sayed, the senator-elect of Michigan, said on CNN to the Democratic lawmakers Tuesday.

Richard Ojeda, the representative-elect of North Carolina, told CNN that the Democratic representatives “failed” by not voting.

“Shame on them for not showing up,” Ojeda said on Tuesday. “I mean, this is important … they had an opportunity to finally get rid of this buffoonery we had.”

The missing Democrats gave House Republicans the numbers to shelve the impeachment effort by voting 211 – 204 to refer eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth to a House committee.

Speaking at Arlington national cemetery to mark Veterans Day, Donald Trump praised Hegseth and said he had done a “fantastic job” as the Pentagon head.

“I had a feeling that was going to happen,” the president said of the failed effort to impeach Hegseth, adding: “He loves you, and he protects you – he’s all about you.”

The articles, introduced by Republican Thomas Massie, included charges of violating congressional authority by waging war in Iran. The effort came after voters overwhelming cast ballots for Democratic candidates in the 2026 midterms, largely in rebuke of the Trump administration’s policies – including the war in Iran.

Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a representative from California, told MeidasTouch there was “no reason why we should have lost this vote because of attendance issues”.

“This is what the people have been talking about … so shame on folks who were not here because these people lost,” Kamlager-Dove added.

READ MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/nov/11/democrats-hegseth-impeachment-vote

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