Rep. Melanie Stansbury blames DC rush-hour traffic for missing the Hegseth impeachment vote; Fox's Bill Melugin presses her on Capitol Hill

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), one of 11 House Democrats who missed Tuesday's vote on Rep. Thomas Massie's resolution to impeach War Secretary Pete Hegseth, says she was stuck in traffic, and Fox News congressional correspondent Bill Melugin caught up with her on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to ask whether that excuse will fly with her own party.

House Republicans blocked the effort 211-204. In a video she posted outside the Capitol, Stansbury apologized: "Let me start by saying, I am so sorry. There is no one who is more disappointed in myself than me, that I was not here the moment that gavel dropped." She said she was driving in on Independence Avenue at rush hour when a lane was closed and a police motorcade blocked traffic in both directions, while arguing that Democrats "did not have the numbers" to impeach Hegseth anyway, the New York Post reports.

Melugin noted that the vote had been expected since Monday night and was held open past the usual 15 minutes, and that several House Democrats have voiced frustration with colleagues who missed it, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, whose office said she was not in Washington. "If they had all been here, there's a chance that Hegseth may have been impeached in the House," he said; Democrats will now have to wait until they take the majority in January to try again.