The hosts of “The View” turned their anger on Democrats after missing lawmakers helped Republicans block an impeachment effort against Pete Hegseth, with some attending a political reception before reportedly getting caught in traffic. Whoopi Goldberg warned that voters could remove Democrats from office over failures to show up. Her co-hosts joined in, criticizing the absences just a week after the party’s midterm election victories.
The confrontation occurred during the November 11th broadcast of ABC’s daytime talk show, as the panel discussed the previous evening’s House proceedings. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky had sought to advance impeachment articles against Hegseth. Instead, the House voted 211–204 to refer the resolution to the Judiciary Committee, blocking the effort from proceeding to an immediate impeachment vote.
Eleven Democrats missed the vote, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Reps. Melanie Stansbury, Laura Gillen and Brittany Pettersen. An Elect Democratic Women reception was taking place at a restaurant roughly a mile and a half from the Capitol during the scheduled voting period. The organization’s co-founder, House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, made it to the vote, while some other attendees reportedly encountered traffic returning to the Capitol.
As Breitbart reported, several absent lawmakers subsequently defended themselves by pointing to transportation delays. Stansbury’s office said a traffic incident involving a police escort prevented her from reaching the chamber before voting ended. Gillen said she had been trapped behind the same escort. Pettersen, meanwhile, blamed Republican leadership and promised another attempt: “Next year House Democrats will impeach Hegseth and neither Johnson nor Trump will be able to stop us.”
On “The View,” Goldberg addressed the excuses after the program showed lawmakers criticizing their absent colleagues. According to TheWrap’s account of the broadcast, she told Democrats to leave earlier when they knew a vote was scheduled and warned against repeating the mistake. She threatened electoral consequences: “As quickly as we put you in power, we can remove you from power.” Alyssa Farah Griffin also pointed to the opportunity Democrats would have to pursue impeachment in the next Congress.
Joy Behar turned specifically to the transportation explanation, saying it “really annoyed” her and recommending a “GPS system,” as Mediaite reported. Farah Griffin criticized lawmakers attending a fundraiser when legislative business required their presence. She argued that the episode fed public resentment toward Washington’s social events and politicians failing to do their jobs. Sara Haines then contrasted voters’ election turnout with lawmakers’ attendance: “One week later you can’t show up at work. It’s a bad look.”
See “The View” hosts criticize the absent Democrats here:
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The missing Democrats had enough potential votes to change the outcome. ABC News reported that all eleven voting against referral would have produced a 215–211 result against the Republican motion. Seven Republicans also missed the proceedings. The vote remained open for 29 minutes, exceeding its scheduled 15 minutes, while Massie was the only Republican to oppose sending his impeachment resolution to committee.
Some absences involved commitments other than the reception. Pelosi’s spokesman told ABC News she had returned to San Francisco for a veterans’ celebration, while Rep. Lou Correa had announced a medical procedure affecting his travel. Stansbury later submitted her intended opposition to referral for the Congressional Record. Such submissions document a member’s position but don’t change the completed vote’s tally or result.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.