Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) called out fellow Democrats for not showing up to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. When reporters asked her on Tuesday whether there was an attendance issue, Sydney replied:“You know, I have to say this: pathetic Pete should have been impeached a long time ago… We knew that this vote was coming. So, people should have gotten their raggedy selves up these steps to vote. There is no reason why we should have lost this vote because of attendance issues.”The U.S. Representative of California’s 37th District continued:“So, shame on folks who are not here ‘cause these people [Republicans] lost. They lost, and they still found a way to show up to table this bill. Shameful.”Eleven Democrats missed a vote on Tuesday to go forward with the impeachment of Pete Hegseth, effectively allowing Republicans to block the effort in a 211-204 vote.These include Julia Brownley (CA), Lou Correa (CA), Laura Gillen (NY), Steven Horsford (NV), Jonathan Jackson (IL), Nancy Pelosi (CA), Brittany Pettersen (CO), Melanie Stansbury (NM), Haley Stevens (MI), Marilyn Strickland (WA), and Frederica Wilson (FL).Exploring what Sydney Kamlager-Dove and others said about fellow Democrats missing Pete Hegseth’s impeachment voteOn Tuesday night, Sydney Kamlager-Dove stood outside of the U.S. Congress and spoke with MeidasTouch’s Pablo Manríquez. After lashing out at fellow Democrats for missing the War Secretary’s impeachment vote, she slammed Pete Hegseth.“This is a dude who is wholly unqualified and really undignified to be in this seat. The man ain’t got no aim... He spent a hundred million dollars to basically rebrand the Department of Defense to the Department of War. And here’s the thing, then he lost the war, and he spent a whole bunch of money,” Sydney noted.The congresswoman continued:“This is what the people have been talking about. You know this man shouldn’t be in this position. That’s why he got up at 8 o’clock in the morning with his sorry self and pleaded to the American people, ‘Hey, you can’t be doing this to me. This is so scandalous.’ Well, you’re scandalous. You are doing stuff that’s unconstitutional and illegal. So, you need to go.”U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told CNN’s Manu Raju:“The people send us here to do a job. I don’t know if anyone had any real health issues or anything significant to that effect, 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 got to clock in and do our work here.”AOC later told Pablo Manríquez:“I don’t know why people weren’t here. Someone may have a health issue. I don’t know. But obviously, having a vote like that on attendance is hard. That hurts.”According to SFGATE, U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi, who previously called for Pete Hegseth’s impeachment, was absent for the vote to attend an award ceremony in San Francisco. Her spokesperson Ian Krager told the outlet via an email:“Speaker Emerita Pelosi returned to San Francisco to join and honor local veterans at Swords to Plowshares’ 30th Annual Veterans Day Celebration tonight, an important and longstanding district tradition she regularly attends and will mark for the last time as a Member of Congress by receiving the Lifetime Advocate for Veterans Award.”Pelosi was photographed at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday afternoon, but left before the vote. Ian Krager further noted that Nancy Pelosi supports the removal of Hegseth and would have voted “no” on the motion to refer.In April 2025, Rep. Julia Brownley condemned Pete Hegseth for being untrustworthy and allegedly leaking “the nation’s most sensitive and classified information” not only on an “unsecured messaging app” but also to his own family. Back then, she claimed in a tweet that he “must resign immediately.”U.S. Representative Lou Correa claimed on X that he “vehemently” supports Pete Hegseth’s impeachment, but had to stay back in Orange County, CA, to undergo a “medical procedure” and would be unable to travel until his doctors cleared him.New Mexico Representative Melanie Stansbury explained why she missed the vote on Tuesday. She tweeted:“Like other Members of Congress, Rep. Stansbury was blocked from entering the Capitol to vote due to a traffic incident and a police escort of a bus during the vote. When she reached the chamber, the vote had just gaveled out. She immediately filed a report of her vote of “NO” on the motion meant to kill the impeachment articles and refer them to the Judiciary Committee, as documented in the Congressional Record. Pete Hegseth must be impeached now.”Like Stansbury, Jackson, Gillen, and Strickland cited D.C. traffic issues as reasons to reach the Capitol late on Tuesday and miss the vote. Meanwhile, Horsford’s office claimed his absence was due to a personal emergency.Rep.-elect Richard Ojeda (D-NC) told CNN’s Laura Coates that it was a “shame” his fellow Democrats didn’t turn up for the vote.“I say shame on them for not showing up. I mean, this is important. They had an opportunity to finally get rid of this buffoonery that we have, and they failed. So, you know what? I think the 120th Congress, I think we’ll take that up,” Ojeda noted.When asked if he had a message for Democrats who missed the vote, Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) told CNN journalist Kaitlan Collins:“You should show up and do your job.”On Tuesday, Pete Hegseth faced eight articles of impeachment over the Iran war, including starting the war without congressional approval and civilian fatalities in Iran and his apparent “crude” handling of the DoD. Hegseth called the accusations a “farce.”Earlier this week, Pete Hegseth posted a video on X titled, “At the War Department: We Stand. We Fight. We Defend the Republic.” In it, he criticized the Democrats by saying:“Their policies don’t work, so their obsession with political theater disguised as power drives them to try to destroy their opponent. It’s all about the politics of personal destruction. Didn’t work against President Trump and won’t work with me. You can rest assured of that.”On Tuesday, Republicans called a vote to block all eight articles against Pete Hegseth in the Judiciary Committee, effectively killing the impeachment for a year, according to The New York Times. The only Republican who voted “no” was Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who introduced the impeachment articles.