Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) appeared close to tears Wednesday as she apologized for missing a crucial House vote on a resolution seeking to impeach War Secretary Pete Hegseth, blaming Washington’s notorious rush-hour congestion.
House Republicans defeated Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) impeachment effort Tuesday by a 211-204 vote. Stansbury was among 11 Democrats who were absent when the vote took place.
“Let me start by saying, I am so sorry,” Stansbury said in a video recorded outside the Capitol and shared on social media. “There is no one who is more disappointed in myself than me that I was not here the moment that gavel dropped.”
Still, the New Mexico Democrat argued that her presence likely would not have changed the outcome given the numbers in Congress.
“While I know it is my responsibility to be here, and I know I should have been there, we did not have the numbers to move forward with impeaching Pete Hegseth at this moment,” Stansbury said. She also noted that any impeachment would then go to the Senate, where conviction would require a two-thirds majority.
Stansbury said severe traffic prevented her from reaching the Capitol in time for the long-scheduled 5:30 p.m. vote.
“As the vote was approaching, I ran back to my car,” she said, without specifying where she had been. “I got in my car and began driving toward the Capitol. As I approached, it was rush hour on Independence Avenue, one of the lanes had been closed, and I was stuck in the right-hand lane.”
She said she could see the Capitol from her vehicle and directed her staff to contact the House floor to explain that the traffic outside was “horrific.”
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“There were other members who were stuck in it, and just at that moment, as I was approaching the Capitol, there was a police motorcade that escorted a bus off campus and blocked traffic in both directions,” Stansbury said. She nevertheless acknowledged, “I should have been there sooner.”
“I understand that it is my responsibility, and I am sincerely sorry, but there were definitely factors that were out of my control,” she added.
Stansbury was not the only Democrat to point to traffic as the reason for missing the vote.
Reps. Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.), John Jackson (D-Ill.), Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.) and Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.) also appeared to have been caught in the same traffic backup.
According to Axios, Stansbury and several other Democrats were attending an Elect Democratic Women PAC reception at a nearby restaurant around the time of the Hegseth impeachment vote.
The outlet reported that at least one lawmaker abandoned their vehicle and walked to the Capitol to get there in time.
Seven Republicans also missed the vote.
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