The House Republican effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas took a temporary detour on Tuesday, with the House voting 216-214 against the impeachment resolution.
The matter could come back up for another vote as early as Wednesday. Republican leaders will work their caucus for votes after four House GOP members – Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tom McClintock of California and Blake Moore of Utah – voted against impeachment.
Moore voted no so that he could call for another vote on the resolution at a later date.
Republicans would have had the votes to impeach if Louisiana Republican Steve Scalise, who is having health issues, had been present.
It’s not even guaranteed that the purely politically-motivated impeachment would get a vote in the Senate.
The impeachment is part of the misguided Republican strategy of trying to pretend that they’re serious about border issues, despite blocking a bipartisan Senate that would actually do something to improve border security at the behest of disgraced ex-president Donald Trump, who wants to be able to blame President Biden for the deteriorating situation at the southern border in the November election.
Case in point: Sixth District Republican Ben Cline, who of course voted yes.
“For years, the Biden Administration has willfully allowed our border to be overrun by record numbers of illegal crossings. It is time to hold them accountable,” Cline said in a statement posted to Twitter on Tuesday. “I fully support the decision to move forward with Articles of Impeachment against Sec. of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. Mayorkas has failed his duty to the American people by neglecting to enforce our immigration laws and allowing this crisis to unfold.”
Notice: there’s nothing there from Cline about his failure to support even giving the bipartisan Senate deal a hearing in the House.
“This sham impeachment comes as congressional Republicans abandon months-long bipartisan negotiations on border and immigration reform, tied to supplemental aid for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, and Gaza,” Fourth District Democrat Jennifer McClellan said in a statement Tuesday night. “They are willing to sabotage our collective efforts to secure the border to appease former President Donald Trump, who urged Republicans to oppose any bipartisan border legislation. House Republicans are more concerned with scoring cheap political points than advancing meaningful bipartisan policy solutions to fix our nation’s broken immigration system.
“I am encouraged this bogus impeachment failed,” McClellan said. “I am confident the Biden-Harris Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and congressional Democrats will continue fighting to develop effective immigration reforms. I urge House Republicans to join us.”
Share
Chris Graham
