But had ALL the Dems showed up, the vote on sending it to committee would have passed by too narrow a margin, and the process would have automatically progressed the eight articles of impeachment to a floor vote.
They COULD have pulled a win out of a loss, forcing each member of the House to vote on the articles of impeachment individually and thus be seen for what they are, and chose not to.
Not necessarily. Impeachments are privileged and handled differently than a regular bill. This was not a vote on the impeachment itself; this was a vote on whether to send it to committee (where it would obviously time out and die) or to advance it to a full floor vote. Eleven Dems and seven Rs skipped the vote, and it passed 211 to 204.
But had ALL the Dems showed up, the vote on sending it to committee would have passed by too narrow a margin, and the process would have automatically progressed the eight articles of impeachment to a floor vote.
They COULD have pulled a win out of a loss, forcing each member of the House to vote on the articles of impeachment individually and thus be seen for what they are, and chose not to.