The ostensibly GOP-controlled House of Representatives finally attempted to impeach Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on the night of Tuesday, February 6, over his handling of the border situation. Unfortunately for the right, three “moderate” Republicans, referred to as RINOs by many in the base, torpedoed the effort.
In fact, it was because those three RINOs voted against the impeachment effort that it did not succeed in the House. The vote ended up being 216 against and 214 for, thus failing. Reps. Ken Buck of Colorado, Tom McClintock of California, and Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin joined the solid Democratic block to torpedo the vote.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s absence due to a blood cancer treatment and Democrat Rep. Greene’s surprise attendance proved problematic for Republicans, as it meant they could only have two defections from the party line and still win. Thus, when Rep. Gallagher changed his mind at the last minute and voted “no,” the effort was stopped for the time being.
However, it can still be brought back up at a later date. At the last moment, just seconds before the vote on the bill closed, Rep. Blake Moore of Utah, the chair of the GOP conference, flipped his vote from “yes” to “no.” That change appears to have been a procedural maneuver on behalf of the GOP, as it gives the conference opportunity to bring the legislation back to the floor at a later date.
Emphasizing that, the Deputy Chief of Communications for Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Raj Shah, said, in a post on X, “House Republicans fully intend to bring Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas back to the floor when we have the votes for passage.” How soon the GOP will try again remains to be seen.
Rep. Gallagher, in a statement posted to X on why he voted against the impeachment of Mayorkas, said, “Secretary Mayorkas has faithfully implemented President Biden’s open border policies and helped create the dangerous crisis at the southern border. But the proponents of impeachment failed to make the argument as to how his stunning incompetence meets the impeachment threshold Republicans outlined while defending former President Trump.”
Continuing, he added, “In 2019 and 2021, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and congressional Democrats used impeachment as a weapon against Mr. Trump, though they couldn’t produce evidence he had committed a crime. It was a rushed, hyperpartisan process that lowered the bar for what constitutes an impeachable offense. Republicans rightly railed against this effort and the dangers of a single-party impeachment, impeachment for unpopular decisions, impeachment for non-criminal acts, and impeachment for not complying with congressional subpoenas.”
He then said, “Republicans rejected the Pelosi precedent then and should reject it today. Creating a new, lower standard for impeachment, one without any clear limiting principle, won’t secure the border or hold Mr. Biden accountable and will set a dangerous new precedent that will be weaponized against future Republican administrations. It will only further pry open the Pandora’s box of perpetual impeachment.”
Watch the conclusion to the failed vote here:
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