WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2026
Did every Democrat want that? Pete Hegseth could have been impeached. That would have led to a Senate trial.
Is that the way Democrats wanted to start the new political era? To us, that wouldn't necessarily seem like the best possible way to proceed.
Other people feel very differently, as you can see below.
At any rate, eleven Democrats missed the vote, including Nancy Pelosi. Where was the former Speaker? We link you to Newsweek's report:
Nancy Pelosi Explains Why She Missed Pete Hegseth Impeachment Vote
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi missed a key vote on articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after leaving Washington, D.C., to attend a veterans event in San Francisco, where she was receiving an award.
The House voted 211-204 on Tuesday to refer eight articles of impeachment introduced by Republican Representative Thomas Massie to the House Judiciary Committee, effectively halting the effort.
Eleven Democrats, including Pelosi, were recorded as not voting. Eight additional votes against the motion would have been enough to defeat it.
Pelosi's absence was notable because the former speaker has previously called for Hegseth to leave office, saying in an October 9 social media post that he was "beyond unfit" to lead the military and declaring: "He must go."
And so on from there.
Has last week's triumphal Blue American unity come to an instant end? More pungently, is it possible that elements of the Democratic Party didn't want to start the new regime with an impeachment of Hegseth?
We have no way of knowing the answer to that. But as Mediaite reports, Blue American unity did take a bit of a tumble:
‘Embarrassing!’ Progressives Erupt at Jeffries and 11 Dems Who Blew Off Hegseth Impeachment Vote
Progressives erupted at House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and the 11 Democrats who failed to show up for Tuesday’s vote on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, allowing Republicans to kill the effort despite their narrow House majority.
The House voted 211-204 to send eight articles of impeachment introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to committee, effectively ending the push to remove Hegseth. Massie was the only Republican to oppose the procedural maneuver.
According to The New York Times, Republican leaders had initially worried they lacked the votes to defeat the measure. Instead, 11 absent Democrats handed them a victory.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) blasted her absent colleagues in remarks to MeidasTouch’s Pablo Manríquez following the vote.
And so on from there, with other examples of blasting noted.
"Shameful," Rep. Kamlager-Dove said. Quite a few other people seemed to feel completely sure about their own assessments.
The eleven Dems are being attacked, at least by a certain number of people. So is the future Speaker Jeffries.
"Embarrassing," at least one person has said. At fault, some Democrats say, is some sort of a traffic delay caused by some sort of alleged police escort.
To us, it didn't necessarily seem like the best way to go. To others, the matter seemed different. For better or worse, this is how things tend to work.
Did every Democrat want him impeached? We have no idea!
ReplyDelete"‘Embarrassing!’ Progressives Erupt at Jeffries and 11 Dems Who Blew Off Hegseth Impeachment Vote "
Oh, so it's the Dumbocrat pwogwessives who want to do theater instead of doing their job? Sure, it figures.
And what about the DSA faction, are they into it too? Just curious.
"Some of those truant Democratic lawmakers said they were stuck in “bumper-to-bumper” traffic on their way back from a new member reception held by the Elect Democratic Women PAC, according to Axios’s Andrew Solender. That group’s offshoot, the EDW Action Fund, has served as a major pass-through for funds from United Democracy Project, a super PAC formed by the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee. It’s not clear which members were in attendance at the event.
ReplyDeleteRepresentative Katherine Clark, who as Democratic whip is responsible for organizing her party’s House members ahead of a vote, is also one of the founding members of EDW. Clark was not absent for the vote, and called the results a “disgrace.”
Of the 11 Democrats who missed the Hegseth vote, eight have received support from EDW or its action group, including Brownley, who sits on the organization’s executive board, and Stansbury, who serves on the board of directors." [The New Republic]
"A spokesperson for Pettersen accused Republicans of having “cynically closed the vote early” when several Democratic members were stuck in traffic. In a statement posted to social media, Brownley said she and her colleagues were “rushing to the floor” when House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) closed the vote." [Rawstory]
Delete"Drop Site News co-founder Ryan Grim noted that EDW was one of many groups that served as a “pass-through” for AIPAC funds in Democratic primaries during the 2026 election cycle.
As The Lever reported last month, AIPAC’s super political action committee (PAC), the United Democracy Project, donated nearly $2.4 million to the group’s political arm, EDW Action, while Democratic Majority for Israel donated another $140,000. "
There is plenty of time in this Congress to have another vote related to impeaching Hegseth.
DeleteHowever, there are not enough votes to impeach Hegseth in this Congress, even if the resolution to send to committee was voted down yesterday. Instead the resolution passed and the bill was sent to committee and shelved.
If all Dems vote for impeachment plus Massie, that is still 2 votes shy of the needed majority.
There is no Republican other than Massie that has expressed they would vote for impeachment.
In January with the new 120th Congress, Dems will have plenty of votes to easily pass an impeachment, so it is just a matter of waiting a few months.
Hegseth does seem to have committed various war crimes. In his defense, he both threw the troops under the bus and said he was "just following orders". As it turns out, unsurprisingly, Hegseth is a coward.
“there are not enough votes to impeach Hegseth in this Congress”
DeleteYes. This obvious fact bears repeating.
“there are not enough votes to impeach Hegseth in this Congress”
DeleteYes. This obvious fact bears repeating.
There were enough votes to advance Massie's impeachment bill but 3 of the Democrat votes were from members who were sick or out of town, leaving 8. Those 8 were votes in favor of impeachment, providing the majority, but they were all invited to a PAC meeting, after which the route back to the Congressional building was blocked by a traffic incident and bus, leaving all 8 unable to cast their votes because Johnson would not extend the vote casting deadline, despite being informed of what was happening. The PAC event was an organization funded by AIPAC, leaving some cynical observers thinking that the delay was manufactured to support Hegseth, not naturally occurring. Johnson's refusal to delay so that the missing members could arrive was a pure partisan act, not in the interest of democracy but in support of the right.
DeleteThat was a vote to then force a floor vote, and several Republicans did not vote.
DeleteIf the vote goes to the floor in this current Congress, it would need 217 votes. All the Dems plus Massie is 215 votes and no other Republican has expressed that they would vote for impeachment and the one independent also will not vote for impeachment.
So with this current Congress, an impeachment would never happen, so the vote on the resolution was not really consequential.
With the new Congress in January, Dems will easily have enough votes in the House.
In the Senate there would need to be 67 votes to convict. With 56 Dem Senators in the new Congress, they are 11 shy of the votes needed and there are not 11 Republicans that have indicated they are open to considering a conviction.
Dems should impeach Hegseth, even if they do not have the votes. It shows they mean business, which is what Americans want.
Massie will not be part of the new Congress because he was primaried by Trump and lost his seat.
DeleteHere is Steve M.'s take on impeachment (at No More Mister Nice Blog):
https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2026/11/pete-hegseth-wasnt-impeached-yesterday.html
He explained why he thinks the failure to move the impeachment bill forward was perhaps a good thing.
With the current Congress, passing a vote to impeach Hegseth is not possible, they do not have the numbers. So the vote on the resolution was of no consequence.
DeleteMassie is a Representative. He adds one vote in the current House, but it is not enough.
In the new Congress in January, Dems will have enough votes to pass impeachment in the House; however, there will not be enough votes in the Senate to convict.
Dems should still pursue impeachment and all other ways to hold Republicans accountable.
This is what America voted for.
Americans are fed up with the corruption and criminality of Republicans.
Hegseth should be impeached and removed.
ReplyDeleteThat is what Americans think.
DeleteSomerby says: "More pungently, is it possible that elements of the Democratic Party didn't want to start the new regime with an impeachment of Hegseth? "
ReplyDeleteAside from pungent being the wrong word (did he mean poignantly?), Somerby appears to be suggesting that the missing Democrats didn't want to impeach Hegseth, while other writers are suggesting that the PAC luncheon and traffic jam were engineering to prevent 8 (of the 11) Democrats from voting (in collusion with Johnson) on behalf of AIPAC and Israel maneuvering to protect Hegseth.
Given that several of the Democrats have been interviewed and said they supported Hegseth's impeachment and were trying to get there in time to vote but were prevented, Somerby's hypothesis seems unlikely. This does not appear to be a boycott of the voting. Given that Republicans are entirely capable of manipulating voting in collusion with AIPAC, the circumstances preventing these Dems from voting appear to be more likely as an explanation.
Note that Somerby does not mention much less explore the alternative theory about Republicans delaying the Democrats so that the vote went their way. That is one way Somerby puts his thumb on the scales in favor of the right. Often, with Somerby's essay, what he leaves out is more telling than what he actually writes. In this case, his suggested explanation (Democrats in disarray) is the traditional right wing and media suggestion. An actual Democrat or liberal or even progressive would not be so quick to blame Democrats. But this IS how Somerby rolls.
Dems know all Republicans are ratfuckers. Plan accordingly when there is an important vote. Or your rat will be fucked.
DeleteYes, "pungently" is the wrong word. It reads like something Cecelia would write.
Delete"Given that several of the Democrats have been interviewed and said they supported Hegseth's impeachment and were trying to get there in time to vote but were prevented..."
DeleteShow us please.
Several of those who missed the vote have been interviewed about it and stated their support for impeachment. In addition, several who missed the vote entered their support for impeachment into the congressional record. You should be able to google this by now. I found a few such interviews on Mediaite and Politico and Rawstory. Also, the Congressional Record is online.
Deletehttps://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/house-dem-says-she-missed-hegseth-impeachment-vote-because-i-physically-was-trapped/
DeleteI think “pungently” is the right word; he means it stinks!
DeleteAnd you wouldn’t blame Dems for their procedural fuck-up?
Under Hegseth, the US military has had so many impressive successes. In the previous 4 years, they screwed up the withdrawal from Afghanistan and got morale so bad that they couldn't recruit enough people. Hegseth deserves a big medal.
ReplyDeleteBut, the Dems are essentially a Hate Group. They hate Hegseth. They hate Kennedy. They hate Trump. They hate Vance. When they take power in January, I expect them to set out to punish their hate objects. Look for pointless impeachments of Hegseth and Trump.
If you don't count losing the war with Iran on Day One, the Christofascist's record doesn't seem so bad.
DeleteJust like not counting women and child victims, Trump's raping isn't THAT bad.
Massie, a conservative Republican, brought the articles of impeachment. Did you get a chance to read them, DiC?
Delete“the Dems are essentially a Hate Group.”
DeleteIt’s almost as if they don’t really “love their neighbor.”
Eh, DG?
“the Dems are essentially a Hate Group.”
DeleteIt’s almost as if they don’t really “love their neighbor.”
Eh, DG?
D in C - it was a Republican congressman who moved for the impeachment. But you seem totally head buried in the sand. No one has spewed more hatred toward the other party than Trump, he is sui generis. He has called them traitors who hate America. He claimed on 60 Minutes that even if it keeps him out of heaven, he will continue to "hate" them. Whatever venom he gets from the Blue side, he simply asks for it. The whole country has had it with Trump (e.g., the recent election), who has degraded the office of the presidency, acting like a narcissistic buffoon. Trump's many successes are mostly in your imagination - you sound like a brainwashed PR flak.
DeleteFrankly, in my view, the Dems would be smarter to try to make the economy better, rather than trying to impeach everyone. It's proven to be a waste of time; the senate won't convict. Most of the country doesn't want it. Though I think Hegseth does deserve to be impeached per at least one of Massey's articles - murdering suspected drug couriers in boats in the Caribbean and the Gulf of "America" [God!! that renaming alone is grounds to impeach Trump!]
Calling Hegseth's impeachment "pointless" seems like an abandonment of our troops.
DeleteSome people deserve to be hated.
DeleteDems can do both. We don't have to choose between justice and affordability. Most of the country does want to see Hegseth convicted (51%).
DeleteDavid is not a real person, "he" is a troll, part of a revolving door of trolls that use the same name.
DeleteNothing "David" says is accurate or genuine, so there is no need to rebut "him". Label "him" a troll and move on, otherwise ignore him, his goal is to trigger you into a response.
Your timing is impeccable, dickface in cal
DeleteHey David, what is your take on the felon making millions selling early access to his "Truth's" so AI bots can place market trades seconds ahead of everyone else. That kind of blatant criming deserves impeachment correct?
DeleteI hate Hegseth, Trump, Kennedy and Vance. Is that supposed to be a bad thing?
DeleteAC/MA wrongly claims that Trump's many successes are mostly in my imagination. Consider just military successes. Here's some real successes by our military in the last 2 years:
Delete- recruitment gone from inadequate to excessive
-- The United States bombed Iranian nuclear sites, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan, on June 22, 2025
-- The US blockade is successfully undermining Iran's economy
-- Countries other than Iran re getting normal oil through the Strait of Hormuz
-- Nicolás Maduro, the ousted Venezuelan president, was captured by U.S. forces during a military operation at a military base on January 3, 2026.
-- the military helped the US to shut down the Southern border to illegal immigrants.
Compare this list with Biden's military successes.
Biden executed a brilliant surrender in hostile territory. A surrender horribly negotiated by Pompeo and Trump knumbnuts. The only casualties were when a terror group hostile to the Taliban suicide bombed. Trump Hegseth have fired generational military talent for having the wrong skin color, or promoting diversity. Biden was America first, not recklessly starting wars and blowing shit up. Trump has lost to Iran on day one, greatly empowering Iran. And he has stopped all aid to Ukraine and munitions empowering our fascist enemy and hurting our Democratic ally. WTF is wrong David, people hate your bullshit brand. Time to give it up. Your crap ain't resonating no more.
DeleteHey David, what is your take on the felon making millions selling early access to his "Truth's" so AI bots can place market trades seconds ahead of everyone else. That kind of blatant criming deserves impeachment correct?
Delete
Delete"No one has spewed more hatred toward the other party than Trump, he is sui generis."
Oh yeah, that's horrible, Hillary.
And you and your minions declaring, -- long before Mr. Trump said anything unusually unpleasant about your party, -- yes, you and your minions declaring the newly elected president "Russian asset", that was no hatred at all. It was all love, Dumbocrat love, obviously.
You and your retarded Dumbocrat comrades are misunderstood innocent victims. Targets of irrational hatred. Irrational hatred by deplorable racists homophobes misogynists super-corrupted fascists Russian assets. Thanks for clarifying it, my dear.
Mao is so busy excusing the thousands of child rapes perpetrated by Republicans, he barely has time enough to squirm for us.
Deleteanon 5:37, (a/k/a Melania") - I myself never thought Trump was a "Russian asset." I think the dems have gone off the rails on various things (and on this site I've been accused of being a trump supporter for that reason). That doesn't change my view that Trump is a narcissistic buffoon. I have to wonder why you and other MAGA's love to call people "retarded." It's ugly. You hardly make the case that you are anything other than a bitter, dimwitted wingnut.
Delete
DeleteI call you and your Dumbocrat comrades "retards" because that's what you are.
I easily rebuffed your "No one has spewed more hatred toward the other party...", but you won't admit it, producing non-sequiturs and moving the goalposts instead.
Without a doubt, you are a retarded Dumbocrat. Live with it.
Christless weirdo at 11:18 - I give you retarded libtard Demon-Dumbocrat, "Erik Erickson (of all people) lamented last week how the Republican Party has been overtaken by “the weirdo right.” But he wrote mostly about “Christless Christian nationalism”
DeleteHaha
Bob defending a war criminal is very on brand.
ReplyDeleteWhat war criminal has Bob defended?
DeleteHegseth, Trump too.
DeleteHow did he defend Hegseth, or for that matter other than pleading insanity, Trump?
DeleteHegseth's group was disrespectful at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXerDayiE3I
Republicans only respect fellow rapists.
DeleteThis isn’t the first time this corrupt clown show disrespected the Arlington National Cemetery
DeleteAlso known as “The tomb of the unknown sucker.” per DJT , AKA Commander in Chief Bonespurs.
Delete“it didn't necessarily seem like the best way to go.”
ReplyDeleteAs was noted in the earlier post, Somerby thinks impeaching someone isn’t “loving thy neighbor.” Case closed.
Apparently indiscriminately bombing fisherman and girl's schools is "loving thy neighbor" in Somerby's world.
Delete"Case closed."
DeleteYou're imputing a motive to Somerby's opposition to Hegseth's impeachment that he hasn't expressed.
Just put two and two together. Or wait a bit.
DeleteIf you read this, what reason can you provide as to why Somerby opposed the impeachment of Trump:
Deletehttps://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2021/02/breaking-should-donald-j-trump-have.html?m=1
The reasons he gives are:
1) “our system doesn't run on impeachment; our system runs on elections.”
2) the impeachment was a tribal exercise by democrats
Nothing about whether the evidence supported a conviction.
I appreciate the link and the numbered reasons given.
DeleteBut I find a problem in your using this link as evidence of Somerby opposing Trump's impeachment, for the simple reason that in the second sentence of the post Somerby says, plain as day, he's "not sure" if Trump should be impeached. And he says it again later in the post.
So why do you claim he's arguing for Trump's impeachment when he expresses such uncertainty about it?
Could Somerby be Natalie?
DeleteAnything is possible, per our esteemed host.
We must pity Trump and his cabinet now more than ever. How else can we show maga that we love them?
ReplyDeleteHegseth will be impeached when the Democrats take office in January.
ReplyDeleteDems will sentence Hegseth to attend a public school for several days during which time he will be transitioned into a woman, although Hegseth's masculinity is such that no one will be able to tell a difference.
DeleteTrump's Veteran's Day speech was loony tunes.
ReplyDelete"I have no idea! or more often, the imperial "We have no idea!" Good old Bob and his faux innocence. Does he really know exactly what he thinks? "I have no idea!"
ReplyDeleteHe can't even be bothered to put much effort in his moronic right wing vanity blog.
DeleteBob is out of touch and out to lunch.
So why don’t you go read someone you like?
Delete7:27,
DeleteAnd miss out on the Right-wing grievance of the day?
Andrew Johnson set a fine example. He loved the Confederate leaders.
ReplyDeleteScott Colom has unseated Cindy Hyde-Smith. How could he be so unloving?
DeleteHyde-Smith can now fully embrace her racism, she can finally be her true self. That's real love from Colom.
DeleteBut he will take her grandchildren and make them switch genders. For sure.
Voting on Massie's bill is not the same as doing an investigation, conducting a hearing and having the House with its Democratic majority vote on impeaching Hegseth, then the Senate voting on whether to remove him. This current bill was Massie's FU to Trump on the way out of the House. It is not the deliberate process that should occur to hold Hegseth accountable for his war crimes and malfeasance. I would expect more than 1 Republican (Massie) to vote for impeachment after a serious impeachment process after the new Congress is installed.
ReplyDeleteI hope so, we need about 11 Republican Senators to vote for conviction.
DeleteThere aren't 11 Republicans who have a problem with treason against the United States of America, never mind 11 Republican Senators.
DeleteTrump said today:
ReplyDelete"Trump: "Green Beret Ryan Hendrickson was leading his team through a Taliban-held village in Afghanistan at 3 in the morning when he was stepped on by enemy. I mean, he was the enemy, the enemy was all over. He made the mistake. A mistake that people understood when they were in the battles, jungles"
He was trying to honor a dead soldier but messed up so badly that the honor part of his message was drowned out by the ignorant blathering.
By the way, there are no jungles in Afghanistan. It is a place of deserts, mountains, and temperate forests (with coniferous trees not vines).
Trump's image of a soldier is Rambo.
DeleteThis is what you get when you put an ignorant buffoon suffering dementia in the WH
DeleteTrump has been doing that lately, where he makes a mistake in a speech, then says whoever he was talking about made a mistake but obviously he is referring to himself and the mistake he just made in the speech and then has to try to incorporate and cover his self blame into the speech by saying whoever/whatever he was talking about made a mistake.
DeleteIt is very weird.
NBC Nightly managed to show some of Trump's speech, but apparently didn't want to alarm anyone showing him talking about our war fighters dying in the jungles of Afghanistan.
DeleteAfghanistan probably has a mix of mostly aridisol and inceptisol soils. Spodosols can develop in coniferous forests but typically require cool, moist climates.
DeleteAfghanistan is more pastoral then agricultural, but apparently they do grow a fair amount of poppy.
Brad Slager at Mediaite told some lies today about black Democratic Governor of MD, Wes Moore. He claimed Moore didn't deserve his Bronze Star, quoting a Lt. Col. who had a hard-on for Moore. Slager neglected to provide the following facts about the 3-star general who pursued the medal for Moore based on his service:
ReplyDelete""Noah Harburger says [in comments at Mediaite]:
It's funny how Brad goes on and on about the Lt. Col who refused to endorse the 2024 bronze star award, but mentions nothing of Lt. Gen. Michael Fenzel, Moores's former commander and 3 star general, who publicly stated that the original Bronze Star paperwork was submitted verbally and misplaced back in 2006. Fenzel led the effort with the U.S. Army to retroactively process and pin the Bronze Star in late 2024 to "right a administrative wrong."
Who goes out of their way to disparage a veteran on Veteran's Day like this, other than a bigot who can't stand it when black people do something exemplary?
Slager can fuck off.
DeleteCorruption was the number one issue for voters according to polls. It seems that that would indicate that the Democrats ought to investigate and somehow put a stop to the corruption, including holding the people accountable who are guilty of corruption. That seems to be what the American people voted for at least in part.
ReplyDeleteA'yup.
ReplyDeleteSay what you will about Republican voters electing a child rapist to be President of the United States of America, but you can't say it isn't perfectly on-brand.
ReplyDeleteJensen Huang has resigned.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to get even more nasty and the FBI will be looking for a new director.
DeleteCash Only Patel is cooked. As are others.
Delete