Were some Democrats who missed Hegseth impeachment vote at AIPAC event?

On Nov. 10, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has been the face of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that began in February.

The impeachment effort failed in a 211-204 vote, which many Democrats blamed on 11 of their fellow party members who were absent from the voting chamber.

The 11 absent Democrats were Reps. Julia Brownley, Melanie Stansbury, Brittany Pettersen, Laura Gillen, Nancy Pelosi, Haley Stevens, Marilyn Strickland, Frederica Wilson, Jonathan Jackson, Steven Horsford and J. Luis Correa.

Social media users claimed some of those 11 missed the vote because they were attending an event related to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — a powerful pro-Israel lobbying group.

The event in question was reportedly hosted by Elect Democrat Women. According to the nonprofit OpenSecrets, the top donor to the Elect Democrat Women-affiliated super PAC, EDW Action Fund, was the United Democracy Project — a super PAC affiliate of AIPAC. 

Drop Site News, a nonprofit investigative news outlet, reportedly obtained an RSVP list of the event showing that three of the 11 Democrats who missed the vote were present at the event: Brownley, of California, Stansbury, of New Mexico, and Pettersen, of Colorado. As of this writing, the reported RSVP list was not publicly available and Drop Site News did not reveal how it sourced the list. 

Two of the representatives, Brownley and Pettersen, reportedly acknowledged attending the Elect Democratic Women event. However, none of them had responded to our requests for comment by the time of publication. Until we hear directly from the representatives’ offices or primary evidence confirming their attendance emerges, we’ve left this claim unrated.

On Nov. 11, USA Today reporter Zach Schermele posted that Brownley told him she “left last night’s Elect Democratic Women event for the Hegseth vote with plenty of time to spare” and that “when the traffic jam made it clear she might not make it in time, she and other lawmakers started texting each other.” He reported that Brownley, 74, then got out of her car and started running, missing the vote by “seconds” (archived).

According to Denver NBC affiliate KUSA, Pettersen acknowledged she attended the event, saying in a statement, “Last night, I was late to the floor and there is no excuse for that. I was at an Electing Democratic Women event.”

Stansbury posted a video on Nov. 11 apologizing for her absence, saying, “I know I should’ve been there at that moment.” She blamed rush-hour traffic on Independence Avenue for her absence. She did not mention the EDW event, though her comments were flooded with users accusing her of attending it.

Because the reported RSVP list was not publicly available and Drop Site News did not reveal where it sourced the list, we are unable to rate this claim. We can, however, break down Drop Site News’ findings and any other publicly available information.

The document Drop Site News reportedly obtained also included a “Run of Show” listing the event’s schedule, which read:

Run of Show:

• 4:30 pm: Event begins.
• 5:00 pm: EDW Chairwoman Lois Frankel to give opening remarks.
  • Thank everyone for attending, supporting EDW, and our historic wins.
• 5:10 pm: Acknowledge all new members in attendance and have them answer questions.
• 5:30 pm: Guests resume mingling.
• 6:00 pm: Event ends.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., publicly posted the voting schedule on Nov. 10, which indicated the vote on the impeachment articles he introduced would take place at 5:30 p.m. (archived).

According to Drop Site’s reporting, the event took place at Goldfinch Social, a venue in Washington, D.C., about 2 miles from the Capitol.

Sources