“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.

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[–] 1 point 9 hours ago (7 children)

unpopular opinion, but i'm glad about this. the dems hate hegseth with passion, if he was almost impeached even in a republican congress, it's practically guaranteed he will be impeached next time anyone tries. and why would the blue tsunami not try?

the real risk would be replacing him too quickly. senate can block his replacement, that's gonna be a major point of leverage for the upcoming democrat congress. letting the gop rush his replacement would be a blunder, it would burn up all that leverage for nothing.

those no-shows are a genuinely good strategic move. they block the impeachment for now in a deniable way, because it's gonna go through anyway, and because you can't replace him if you don't impeach him first. (unless trump fires him first, but like, fat chance.) however, an impeachment in february leaves trump begging the dems for his next secdef, while an impeachment now would have him scrambling to get a new guy in before the deadline.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 hours ago

    That's not the actual play because Trump has no issue having a revolving clown car full of Acting Defense Secretaries that will do his bidding.

    They have to make an example out of Kegseth to send a message to the rest of them.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 hours ago (5 children)

    You think any of the remaining MAGAt traitors in the Senate are gonna vote to convict next Congress? Even given the fact that the tsunami means only the most extreme are coming back, and with the full knowledge they CAN’T ram through another shithead? I don’t. Best chance for removal was now.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 hours ago (4 children)

    Hegseth would have been immediately exonerated in the Senate and would have yelled, "See! I did nothing wrong!" People have no idea how their own damned government works. Hegseth would have been declared innocent and being impeached again for the same crimes in January would have failed again.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 hours ago (3 children)

    And there’s no way a Dem can win the Senate in Florida, or Mississippi, so why even try?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 hours ago* (2 children)

    And there’s no way a Dem can win the Senate in Florida, or Mississippi, so why even try?

    Haven't seen the news? Scott Colom is over 4,000 votes ahead of Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Mississippi Senate race right now, and is now projected to win because his lead is strong enough to overcome any legal objections/vote exclusions under Mississippi law.

    And Angie Nixon lost her Senate race in Florida by the narrowest of margins: with a little extra support she may well have crossed the line.

    Or in other words, YES, hell is in fact experiencing its first snowflakes in a very long time.

    That doomer shit is no longer believable, and I'm glad to finally be able to prove it an outright lie.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 child)

    Exactly my point. If we don’t do it because “Hegseth would have been immediately exonerated in the Senate” )or in other words, it doesn’t matter) then we never get the outcomes you described. We still have to go through the motions.

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