Via The Hill: In stunner, House GOP bid to impeach Mayorkas fails.
A House GOP effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas failed in embarrassing fashion Tuesday as three Republicans joined Democrats in voting against what would have been the second-ever impeachment of a Cabinet official.
The 214-216 vote is a stunning loss for a GOP that has faced continual pressure from its right flank to impeach a Biden official, even as the party has waffled over which one to focus on.
While the outcome is definitely an embarrassment to the House GOP leadership, I am going to admit that part of me isn’t stunned, because the whole notion was such an obviously ridiculous political stunt that part of my brain figured it couldn’t possibly be successful. Still, it is a testament to the state of the House GOP caucus that they could come this close to such an absurd action in the same week it blew up a deal to increase border security that is practically right off their own wishlist.
The failure came about because of the surprise appearance in the chamber of Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who showed up unexpectedly to vote against the bill.
Republicans entered the vote with two expected GOP “no” votes from Reps. Ken Buck (Colo.) and Tom McClintock (Calif.), but then a third House GOP lawmaker, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), also voted against impeachment. The surprise “no” vote prompted numerous GOP colleagues to gather around Gallagher for a lengthy conversation before the vote closed.
A fourth Republican, Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), the vice chair of the GOP conference, then flipped his vote to “no” seconds before the vote closed, a procedural move that allows the conference to bring the legislation back to the floor at a later date.
A chance to nonetheless do the stupid thing remains on the table.
Republicans say the hope is to bring the legislation to the floor again, when House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who is undergoing treatment for cancer, will be able to attend.
Regardless of one’s view of proper immigration and border security policy, no one with two brain cells thinks that impeaching Mayorkas is anything other than a brazen political stunt. Not only is the notion that he is “willful[ly] and systemic[atically] refus[ing] to comply with the law” absurd but there is no way he will be removed by the Senate. At a minimum, it is a way for House Republicans to send a signal (which may, ultimately, be all that the impeachment process is good for).
Of course, it would be nice if the signal made some semblance of sense.
Further, the problems at the border are a combination of external forces, inadequate resources, and inefficacious policies. None of that is Mayorkas’ fault. Not to mention that the problem isn’t lack of enforcement (and certainly not willful disregard of the law). It is just that the numbers are simply huge.
