Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) appeared close to tears Wednesday as she attributed her absence from a key vote on an impeachment resolution against War Secretary Pete Hegseth to Washington, D.C.’s notorious rush-hour traffic.
House Republicans defeated Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) impeachment effort Tuesday by a 211-204 vote. Stansbury was among 11 Democrats who did not vote.
“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 congresswoman argued that her presence would not have changed the outcome given the numbers in Congress.
“While I know that it is my responsibility to be here, I know that I should have been there … we did not have the numbers to move forward to impeach Pete Hegseth at this moment,” Stansbury said. “Not to mention, in the Senate, where he would have to have a trial and be convicted with a two-thirds vote.”
Stansbury blamed “horrific” congestion for preventing her from reaching the Capitol in time for the scheduled 5:30 p.m. vote.
“As the vote was approaching, I ran back to my car,” Stansbury said, without specifying where she had been. “I got in my car, and I began driving toward the Capitol. As I approached the Capitol, it was rush hour on Independence Avenue. They closed one of the lanes, and I was stuck in the right-hand lane.”
The New Mexico Democrat said she could “see the Capitol” from her vehicle and directed her staff to “call the floor to let the floor know that the traffic was horrific outside.”
MORE STORY: Man Sues OpenAI After ChatGPT Told Him to Stop Paying Rent
“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 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 said.
Stansbury was not the only Democrat to cite 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 jam.
According to Axios, Stansbury and several other Democrats were attending an Elect Democratic Women PAC reception at a nearby restaurant when the Hegseth impeachment vote took place.
The outlet reported that at least one lawmaker abandoned their vehicle and walked to the Capitol because of the congestion.
Seven Republicans also missed the vote.
