Democrats lash out at no-show colleagues after Hegseth survives impeachment push

Résumé détaillé

‘People should have gotten their raggedy selves up these steps to vote,’ said California Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove after resolution against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fails to pass

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House Democrats have voiced their frustration after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth managed to escape impeachment Tuesday, lashing out at their colleagues who were not present for a key vote on his future.

Rebel Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie had filed articles of impeachment against Hegseth Monday, accusing him of “high crimes and misdemeanors” for waging the war with Iran without first securing congressional approval and of carrying out extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean by bombing alleged drug boats.

However, with the chamber’s GOP majority still in place until January, the House voted 211-204 to pass the matter onto the Republican-led Judiciary Committee, where it is all but certain to languish – at least until the new year, when the Democrat-led 120th Congress is sworn in.

While the outcome represented a huge relief for the secretary and a much-needed win for President Donald Trump, who was quick to crow about it on Truth Social, the opposition was left to rue the 11 absent members of its caucus who might have made the difference.

Speaking on the steps of the Capitol to CNN reporter Manu Raju immediately after the vote, a clearly frustrated New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said of her absent colleagues: “The people send us here to do a job... I don’t know if anyone had any real health issues or anything significant [in] that respect, so I want to leave room for that but, that being said, at the end of the day we’re here to do a job.

“And the same way I had to clock in when I worked at a restaurant, we’ve got to clock in and do our work here.”

California Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove was equally annoyed, telling MeidasTouch reporter Pablo Manriquez: “We knew that this vote was coming, so people should have gotten their raggedy selves up these steps to vote.

She went on to mock Hegseth over the defiant Pentagon press briefing…

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