众议院少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯（民主党-纽约州）于2026年11月12日在华盛顿特区国会大厦举行的新闻发布会上发言。民主党人本周涌入华盛顿，刚刚在一场代际性的大选中获胜，承诺为美国人带来可负担的生活，并对特朗普政府进行问责。
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on November 12, 2026. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images Democrats rolled into Washington this week fresh off a generational sweep election on the promise of affordability for Americans and accountability for the Trump administration.
但在周二晚上，众议院民主党人未能通过其即将上任的多数党地位的首次考验。众议员托马斯·马西（共和党-肯塔基州）于周一提出的一项弹劾决议，针对战争部长皮特·赫格塞斯——美以对伊朗战争的主要设计师之一——给了共和党一个取得早期胜利的机会。
But on Tuesday night, Democrats in the House failed the first test of their incoming majority. An impeachment resolution introduced Monday by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., targeting Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, one of the main architects of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, provided Republicans with a chance to score an early victory.
众议院少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯和众议院民主党领导层未能抓住机会，因为有11名民主党议员缺席了一次关键投票，该投票本可使该决议得以存活。该尝试以微弱差距失败，票数为211票对204票；马西周三告诉《拦截者》，即使缺席的民主党议员到场，他也确信众议院议长迈克·约翰逊本可以动员其党团成员弥补差距。在新任期开始之前，众议院仍由共和党控制。
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the chamber’s Democratic leadership failed to take advantage, as 11 Democrats missed a critical vote that would have kept the resolution alive. The attempt failed by a slim margin, 211 to 204; Massie told The Intercept on Wednesday that even if the missing Democrats showed up he was sure House Speaker Mike Johnson could have rallied his members and made up the difference anyway. Until the new term begins, the chamber is still controlled by the GOP.
尽管如此，这次投票是一个向白宫发出信号的机会。信号发出了：一个混乱、机能失调的党团。其他民主党人试图利用这一失误，表示他们不愿缺席投票——得克萨斯州众议员贾斯敏·克罗克特表示她绕道避开交通拥堵，纽约州众议员帕特·瑞安在背部手术后第二天赶到现场。
Nonetheless, the vote was a chance to send a message to the White House. One was sent: that of a disorganized, dysfunctional caucus. Other Democrats sought to take advantage of the misstep, noting that they were unwilling to miss the vote—Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas said she rerouted around traffic, and Rep. Pat Ryan of New York made it the day after back surgery.
克罗克特告诉MS NOW：“无论发生什么，我都不会让交通拥堵阻止我参加那次投票。这对我来说太重要了。”
“No matter what, I wasn’t going to allow traffic to keep me from that vote,” Crockett told MS NOW . “It was just that important to me.”
当被问及缺席原因时，出席了投票的众议员亚历山德拉·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯仅给出了“有人可能有健康问题”这一解释。
When asked about the absences, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was present for the vote, offered only “someone may have had a health issue” as an explanation.
缺席投票的众议员将缺席归咎于多种因素，其中包括交通状况。周三，除众议员海莉·史蒂文斯（密歇根州，民主党）外，所有这些缺席的众议院民主党人都开始给出解释。众议员乔纳森·杰克逊（伊利诺伊州，民主党）告诉 TMZ DC，他因“交通拥堵”缺席是“不可原谅的”。他不是唯一怪罪交通的人——众议员玛丽莲·斯特里克兰（华盛顿州，民主党）和劳拉·吉伦（纽约州，民主党）也将错过投票归咎于华盛顿特区的交通瘫痪；众议员朱莉娅·布朗利（加利福尼亚州，民主党）表示她正“赶往”投票，但还是错过了。
House members who missed the vote blamed a number of factors for their absence, including traffic. On Wednesday, all of those same House Democrats save Rep. Haley Stevens (Mich.) began to offer explanations. Rep. Jonathan Jackson (Ill.) told TMZ DC that his “traffic jam”-related absence was “inexcusable.”He wasn’t the only one to blame traffic — Reps. Marilyn Strickland (Wa.) and Laura Gillen (N.Y.) also cited D.C. gridlock as the reason they missed the vote; Rep. Julia Brownley (Calif.) said she was “rushing” to the vote but missed it.
众议员南希·佩洛西（加利福尼亚州，民主党）、卢·科雷亚（加利福尼亚州，民主党）和弗雷德里卡·威尔逊（佛罗里达州，民主党）当时都不在城里。
Reps. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Lou Corea (Calif.), and Frederica Wilson (Fla.) were all out of town.
失去的势头无法挽回。如果杰弗里斯不明白这一点，他就不适合这份工作。
Momentum lost can’t be regained. If Jeffries doesn’t understand that, he’s not the man for the job.
众议员梅拉妮·斯坦斯伯里（新墨西哥州，民主党）发布了一段面向选民的视频道歉。众议员史蒂文·霍斯福德（内华达州，民主党）在议院发言中表示承担“全部责任”。众议员布列塔尼·彼得森（科罗拉多州，民主党）承认她当时正参加一个超级政治行动委员会的活动，并表示错过投票“没有任何借口”。
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (N.M.) offered a front-facing video apology to constituents . Rep. Steven Horsford (Nev.) took “full responsibility” in a floor speech. And Rep. Brittany Pettersen (Colo.) acknowledged that she was at a super PAC event and said there was “ no excuse ” for missing the vote.
表达遗憾是个好的开始。这表明这些议员意识到他们的行为与选民当下的立场背道而驰，并正在做出相应调整。但这还不够。
Expressing regret is a good start. It shows these lawmakers are aware that their actions are antithetical to where their voters are at this moment and are adjusting accordingly. It’s not enough.
领导层失职。作为党鞭，众议员凯瑟琳·克拉克本应维持党团纪律。（值得注意的是，克拉克上周正式宣布竞选多数党领袖。）多名将缺席归咎于交通的议员此前正参加“选举民主党女性”组织举办的活动，该组织部分资金来自美国以色列公共事务委员会（AIPAC）。该活动与弹劾决议投票时间重叠；克拉克是该组织的联合创始人。
Leadership was asleep at the wheel. As whip, Rep. Katherine Clark should have kept the caucus in line. (It’s worth noting that Clark officially launched a bid for majority leader last week.) A number of reps who blamed traffic were previously at an event hosted by the group Elect Democratic Women, which receives some of its funding from AIPAC. The event overlapped with the impeachment resolution vote; Clark is a cofounder of the group .
投票后，克拉克在 X 平台发帖称：“共和党刚刚阻止众议院弹劾皮特·赫格塞斯”——却未为本党自身的纪律松懈承担责任。
“Republicans just blocked the House from impeaching Pete Hegseth,” Clark posted on X after the vote—failing to take responsibility for her party’s own lack of discipline.
民主党人缺席一项旨在追究伊朗战争主要人物责任的投票，转而去参加筹款活动，这简直是为进步派批评党领导层现状量身定制的素材，令人难以置信。
Democrats missing a vote to hold one of the main figures in the war on Iran accountable so they could attend a fundraiser is so tailor-made for progressive complaints over the state of party leadership, it’s hard to believe.
杰弗里斯试图将此次投票描述为仅给黑格塞斯暂时的喘息机会，但他并未表现出多少意愿去追究其党团成员的责任。
Jeffries tried to spin the vote as only a temporary reprieve for Hegseth, but he didn’t telegraph much willingness about holding his caucus to account.
他告诉《政治报》（Politico）说：“我还没有与议场团队的任何人就黑格塞斯决议案中可能发生或未发生的事情进行过交谈，但这还没有结束。这只是开始。” 最关键的是，他拒绝为其党团成员缺席造成的极其糟糕的舆论形象承担任何责任，即使他们的出席很可能也无法改变结果。
“I haven’t had a conversation with anyone on the floor team about what may or may not have happened in terms of the Hegseth resolution, but this is not the end of it. It’s just the beginning,” he told Politico . Most critically, he accepted no responsibility for the stunningly bad optics of having members of his caucus no-show, even if it likely wouldn’t have moved the needle.
这件事根本不应该发生。这是杰弗里斯和克拉克在投票问题上做出的一系列决定导致的，这些决定清楚地表明了他们并不重视这次投票。
This never should have happened in the first place. It was the result of a series of decisions by Jeffries and Clark about the vote that made clear it wasn’t important.
失去的势头无法挽回。如果杰弗里斯不明白这一点，纯粹从战术角度来看，他就不适合担任这份工作，也不应自诩为能引领我们度过特朗普执政未来两年的党旗手。
Momentum lost can’t be regained. If Jeffries doesn’t understand that, he’s not the man for the job purely on tactical grounds, and he should lay no claim to being a party standard-bearer to steer us through the next two years of Trump’s America.
杰弗里斯及其政党似乎注定要重蹈覆辙。2009年，当奥巴马总统凭借一场变革选举入主白宫，并让民主党在国会获得巨大多数席位、甚至在参议院拥有防阻挠议事的超级多数时，该党一出门就自我设限，预先宣布不追究乔治·W·布什八年执政期间的诸多罪行。
Jeffries and his party seem doomed to repeat the past. In 2009, when President Barack Obama came into the White House on the back of a change election that gave Democrats huge majorities in Congress, including a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate, the party hobbled itself out of the gate by preemptively declining to pursue justice for the many crimes of eight straight years of George W. Bush.
奥巴马在2009年1月对美国广播公司（ABC News）的乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯（George Stephanopoulos）说：“我们需要展望未来，而不是回顾过去。” 这实际上扼杀了任何追究离任政府酷刑项目及其他众多不当行为的希望。可以说，那个决定的后果导致了对伊朗的战争、两党共治的移民驱逐体制，以及罗诉韦德案（Roe）被推翻。民主党选民不希望该党固步自封，他们想要的是血。
“We need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards,” Obama told ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos in January 2009 , effectively ending any hope of accountability for the outgoing administration’s torture program and myriad other misdeeds . The ramifications of that decision arguably led to the war on Iran, a bipartisan immigration-deportation regime, and the end of Roe. Democratic voters don’t want the party to rest on its laurels, they want blood.
如今，面对一位比小布什更令人痛恨的共和党总统——这在近18年前几乎无法想象——民主党建制派似乎准备重蹈覆辙。对抗特朗普及其腐败、暴力的政府，是推动众议院和参议院席位在全国范围内易手的主要信息之一，但该党现任领导人对采取行动过敏。
Now, with a Republican president who is hated even more than W—something that would have seemed impossible to imagine almost 18 years ago—the Democratic Party’s establishment wing appears ready to repeat those failures. Taking on Trump and his corrupt, violent administration was one of the main messages that flipped House and Senate seats across the country but the party’s current leaders are allergic to action.
根深蒂固的民主党人似乎对任何形式的问责都不感兴趣。密歇根州民主党人史蒂文斯背离本党、背书共和党人迈克·罗杰斯竞选参议员，而非支持阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德，在大选前后几天里承受着压力，甚至建制派大佬、众议员吉姆·克莱伯恩也表示愿意将她逐出党团。到了周二上午，佩洛西——始终与党领导层保持联系——似乎给这一想法泼了冷水：“我不支持把她踢出去……让我们专注于非常积极的方面。”
Entrenched Democrats also don’t seem interested in any sort of accountability. Stevens, the Michigan Democrat who broke ranks with her party and endorsed Republican Mike Rogers for Senate rather than back Abdul El-Sayed, was under pressure in the days before and after the election, with even establishment kingmaker Rep. Jim Clyburn signaling openness to expelling her from the caucus. By Tuesday morning, Pelosi — always in touch with party leadership — seemed to throw cold water on the idea: “I’m not supporting kicking her out…. Let’s focus on the very positive.”
这是对选民情绪的彻底误读，令人不禁怀疑是否是故意装糊涂。民主党选民不希望该党固步自封，他们想要的是血。自第二个特朗普任期开始以来，参加过任何自由派集会的人都能告诉你，标语牌呼吁的起码是问责，而非立即妥协。
This is such a complete misunderstanding of the mood of the electorate, one wonders if it’s intentionally obtuse. Democratic voters don’t want the party to rest on its laurels, they want blood. Anyone who’s been to a liberal rally since the start of the second Trump term can tell you that the signage is calling for, at minimum, accountability, not immediate compromise.
如果民主党盖章批准杰弗里斯担任议长，且未能采取更激进的立法和调查手段，党团内部和基本盘的挫败感只会继续升温。
If Democrats rubber-stamp Jeffries as speaker and fail to adopt a more aggressive legislative and investigative approach, frustrations within the caucus and among the base will only continue to mount.
杰弗里斯在淡化异见，但这不仅仅是民主党两派之间的斗争。多年来，纽约州的民主党人一直在寻求推翻这位领袖，对其与美国以色列公共事务委员会（AIPAC）及金融机构的亲密关系感到沮丧。他是民主党基本盘厌倦的那种民主党人，这种愤慨普遍存在；民调显示他有多么深陷于不受欢迎之中。
Jeffries is downplaying dissent, but this is more than just a battle between two wings of the Democratic Party. Democrats in New York have been looking to unseat the leader for years, frustrated with his closeness to AIPAC and financial institutions. He’s the kind of Democrat the base is fed up with, and that exasperation is widespread; polling shows just how deeply unpopular he is.
如今，多位新当选和现任的民主党众议员向记者表示，选民和活动团体要求他们不要投票支持杰弗里斯担任议长。
Now, multiple incoming and incumbent Democratic reps have told reporters that constituents and activist groups are demanding they not vote for Jeffries as speaker.
一位备选人正逐渐获得支持：马萨诸塞州进步派众议员阿亚娜·普雷斯利，她是2018年首次当选的原始“四人小组”成员之一。普雷斯利面临艰难的战斗，尚未宣布有意竞逐该职位。左翼对此感兴趣。
There is an alternative gaining steam: Rep. Ayanna Pressley, the Massachusetts progressive and member of the original “Squad” who were first elected in 2018 . Pressley has an uphill battle and has not yet announced that she’s interested in the job. The left is interested .
选民在选举日给民主党下达了明确授权，表明他们希望在华盛顿看到什么。追究这届政府的责任应是首要任务之一。如果该党未能竭尽全力推进这一目标，它将再次坐实其宁愿失败也不愿行动的名声。我们都应推动下一届国会成为这一规则的例外——而他们可以从选出一位符合时代要求的新议长开始。
Voters gave Democrats a clear mandate on Election Day for what they want to see in Washington. Holding this administration accountable should be one of the top priorities. If the party fails to do all it can to advance that goal, it will once again earn its reputation for preferring failure to action. We should all push the next Congress to act as the exception to that rule—and they can start by picking a new speaker to meet the moment.
本文《赫格塞斯表决是杰弗里斯的首次重大考验，他失败了》首发于《拦截者》。
The post The Hegseth Vote Was Jeffries’s First Big Test. He Failed. appeared first on The Intercept .