Why did Nancy Pelosi miss the vote to impeach Pete Hegseth?

(CNN) -- Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi missed a vote on Tuesday in the House to move forward with impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, because she attended an event with veterans in San Francisco, according to her spokesman, Ian Krager.

Krager said Pelosi "supports the removal of Secretary Hegseth, and would have voted 'no' on the referral motion."

Pelosi was among 11 Democrats who were absent from the vote on Tuesday evening regarding referring the draft resolution submitted by Republican Representative Thomas Massie to remove Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee, which effectively led to the death of this effort.

“Speaker Emeritus Pelosi returned to San Francisco to join and honor local veterans at tonight’s 30th annual Swords to Plowshares Veterans Day celebration, an important and time-honored tradition in the region that she attends regularly, and which she will celebrate for the final time as a Member of Congress by receiving the Lifetime Defender of Veterans Award,” Krager said.

Another Democrat, New Mexico Representative Melanie Stansbury, posted a statement on the X platform in which she explained that she had missed the vote due to her delay resulting from a traffic accident.

Her post stated: “Like other members of Congress, Representative Stansbury was prevented from entering the Capitol building to cast her vote due to a traffic accident and a police escort on a bus during the voting process. When she arrived in the chamber, the voting procedures had already concluded. She was quick to register her position of rejection (“No”) to the proposal that aimed to drop the articles of impeachment and refer them to the Judiciary Committee, which was documented in the Congressional Record.”