“Jeffries didn’t even whip the vote,” one critic said about the House minority leader, who wants to be speaker. “This is why people want a stronger leader.”
As House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries seeks to become speaker when Democrats retake Congress in January, critics questioned his leadership Tuesday after the Republican-led lower chamber effectively blocked a bid to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth by just seven votes—an outcome that may have been averted if more Democrats showed up to vote.
The 211-204 procedural vote effectively torpedoed Congressman Thomas Massie’s attempt to impeach Hegseth by sending the outgoing Kentucky Republican’s resolution to the House Judiciary Committee, where it will likely gather dust during the remainder of the GOP-controlled congressional term.
As few days as our Congress is in session, I don’t think it is too much to ask our Representatives to be present in or around the Capitol during business hours unless it is a life or death emergency. My employer wouldn’t keep me around if I was slacking off whenever I felt like it.
We should assume it is deliberate. There will be a lot of “rotating villains”, “parliamentarians” and “bipartisanship” in the coming congress. Any excuse to not get anything good passed.
All of it is bullshit. Many democrats want to protect the status quo in spite of the popular mandate for change.
Don’t give them the benefit of the doubt.
Fucking Hydra bullshit. Hate it.
We need to expose and get rid of all of them.
Get ready for another year of protesting even with dems in Congress.
Dems in Congress only means there’s a chance people will listen as opposed to before when there was no chance.
We are NOT out of the woods yet.
The 11 Democratic members of the House who were not present for the procedural vote on the Pete Hegseth impeachment resolution are:
- Julia Brownley (Calif.)
- Lou Correa (Calif.) — note: the report notes he was recovering from a medical procedure and unable to travel
- Laura Gillen (NY)
- Steven Horsford (Nev.)
- Jonathan Jackson (Ill.)
- Nancy Pelosi (Calif.)
- Brittany Pettersen (Colo.)
- Melanie Stansbury (NM)
- Haley Stevens (Mich.)
- Marilyn Strickland (Wash.)
- Frederica Wilson (Fla.)
Fuck haley stevens what a stupid bitch
A part of kegsbreath’s impeachment is he’s working for Israel’s interests rather than the US’, so of course AIPAC goons like Stevens and Pelosi are gonna be absent for his impeachment vote.
And jeffries. https://www.newsweek.com/hakeem-jeffries-aipac-israel-house-speaker-chuck-schumer-12679076
they funnel it through individual donors but yeah:
OpenSecrets told Newsweek on Friday that the $49,565 attributed to AIPAC represents money from individual donors whose contributions were facilitated via the organization, rather than money donated directly by AIPAC. It said it groups those contributions under the AIPAC umbrella because AIPAC facilitated them. Jeffries separately received $11,700 in direct contributions from AIPAC’s PAC, according to OpenSecrets.
A separate OpenSecrets historical table puts Jeffries’ total from pro-Israel PACs and individuals at $1,741,230 through the 2024 election cycle. That placed Jeffries 11th among the top 20 recipients listed and slightly ahead of fellow New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, at $1,727,974.
Of course it includes Pelosi. Stupid leech.
Majority of dems who didn’t vote, also had funding to their campaigns through aipac. Looking at you Marylin Strickland.
Majority who voted probably also had aipac funding.
Not only that, they were attending an AIPAC event instead of being there to vote.
Are you fucking kidding me
Some of the 11 Democrats who missedTuesday’s vote to advance the impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were reportedly attending an event hosted by a “front group” for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, commonly known as AIPAC.
Jeffries didn’t even whip the vote. He told people to ‘vote their conscience,’ and 11 members of his caucus didn’t show up,” writer Laura Bassett wrote on social media. “This is why people want a stronger leader.”
Jeffries is a piece of shit and shouldn’t be anywhere near any leadership position…
But whipping votes is the job of the second in line…
A job with the literal title “minority whip”…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Clark
We can’t just focus on two popular names, we need to flush all the neoliberals out of leadership.
All that being said, votes just happen whenever with no warning. It’s way past time that these votes need to be scheduled in advance. Instead of “vote starts now” at least “vote starts in 24 hour, exactly at ____ o’clock”
Once the main vote happens, there can be exceptions for follow ups, like “next vote in one hour”
The current way shit is done is fucking stupid
A job with the literal title “minority whip”…
That is not the official title for that position, though it’s commonly called that. The official title is Assistant Minority Leader, because the person in that position reports to the House Minority Leader. Katherine Clark shares responsibility for this failure, but the buck stops at the top, and that’s Jeffries. It’s literally part of Jeffries’ job to tell the Assistant which votes should get whipped. The Assistant doesn’t typically decide that on their own.
All that being said, votes just happen whenever with no warning. It’s way past time that these votes need to be scheduled in advance. Instead of “vote starts now” at least “vote starts in 24 hour, exactly at ____ o’clock”
Yeah, it’s worth noting because the vote was called right after many Dems left for a break. And then when the call went out for all the Dems to scramble back, many were too far away and couldn’t make it before the vote was held.
Voting by our representatives should take place over the course of a week. They can use web cameras to discuss the topic, a publicly recorded version of Discord, and so on. I want my reps to drink coffee, talk out the issues, and be able to submit their vote without time pressure.
Our systems are rooted in being physically present, yet make mental presence optional.
It’s honestly depressing how little thought people put into this stuff, not every rage addict is a trump supporter these days. Uninformed angry people are all over, and they really want to share opinions
Is that a thing that can happen? Here in Australia our parliament is designed in such a way that the chamber (House or Senate) is no more than three minutes walk from every parliamentarian’s office and, when a vote is held where a formal division is required, they ‘ring the bells’ (literally a ringing bell with alarms in every office) for exactly four minutes so every parliamentarian has the ability to make it to the chamber for the vote before they lock the doors. To design a parliament or congress building in any other way seems insane to me.
That sounds like a good system set up in good faith. The USA government was set up in very bad faith, by men who thought they could own people like cattle
This was great strategy on the part of Massie to support the incoming wave of progressives,
Yep. This is making a great case for replacing current congressional leadership with new blood.
That’s why majority leader is an important position. Because they’re SUPPOSED to keep this kind of childish bullshit from happening. If you elect adults, this doesn’t happen. If you elect children (including those AARP age), you get the level of administration you voted for.
Holy Shit. If he’s being this much a dick now, there’s no way in fucking hell is going to cooperate with the progressive caucus. Sure, you might get your committee assignments, but Dems are pros are strategically sinking progressive policies and there is little doubt in my mind that Jeffries will effectively stifle any movement towards fulfilling the mandates of this election.
There’s that meme, with Nick Offerman, “I said I want ICE abolished and the agents prosecuted”, “I’m afraid you thought I said ‘Rein in ice and conduct oversight’”, no, I said “Abolish ICE and prosecute the agents.”
It’ll be the same as “defund the police” where they’ll spin it as if we didn’t really mean abolish ICE when we said it
When leadership can’t get everyone on the same page, people start asking serious questions. What do you think this vote says about the party’s direction?
What do you think has changed in the house since the election? You do know none of the winners are sworn until January, right?
That’s a fair point. January will certainly bring a clearer picture of where things stand. But I think leadership is already being tested by the decisions being made today. The real question is whether the party is prepared to learn from this moment and move forward.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the House is completely unchanged from before the election. The impeachment motion was brought forward by a disgruntled Republican, but it never had a hope of passing. Come January, everything changes.
That’s a fair correction. You’re right that the new members won’t officially take their seats until January. I was more focused on the political pressure and discussions happening right now. January should certainly make things clearer. What changes do you think we’ll see once the new Congress takes over?
The big three would be: stop the war, remove the tariffs, fill the gaps in Medicaid. Additionally, introduce accountability for the top offenders. Basically, introduce policies, laws that will lead to a Democrat majority in 2028.
Those are important priorities. I think the real challenge is turning those promises into policies that actually make a difference in people’s lives. Accountability should definitely be part of it.
