The House failed to approve articles of impeachment for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
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Jose Luis Magana/AP
The House failed to approve articles of impeachment for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
House Republicans failed to pass articles of impeachment for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, scuttling an effort that was broadly seen as a possibility to ship on a key promise to GOP base voters.
The vote was caught in a tie for a number of minutes as leaders scrambled, however in the long run, 4 Republicans voted in opposition to the measure and the ultimate vote was 214 to 216.
Republicans instantly moved to deliver again the decision up for one other vote. But it is unclear when or if that may ultimately occur. Republican Leader Steve Scalise was absent and is anticipated to return to the Capitol this month.
The two articles charged Mayorkas with “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” in implementing border coverage and “breach of public trust.”
The Republican base and conservative media figures referred to as for impeachment of a number of Biden administration officers – together with Mayorkas, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and President Biden himself – after the occasion retook the House within the 2022 midterms.
Republicans have targeted on investigations and oversight to ship on calls for from their base in a divided Congress the place a Democratic-controlled Senate can quash any partisan payments despatched from the House. But with a razor-thin majority, Republicans have been unable to unite their convention and keep a majority on the Mayorkas impeachment measure.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., mentioned the chamber didn’t take the transfer “lightly.” He accused Mayorkas of failing to implement federal legislation “blatantly, openly, willfully and without remorse.”
“It’s an extreme measure, but extreme times call for extreme measures,” Johnson mentioned.
Rep. Tom McClintock, one of the Republicans who voted in opposition to impeaching, mentioned on the House Floor Tuesday that “Sec. Mayorkas is guilty of maladministration of our immigration laws on a cosmic scale. But we know that’s not grounds for impeachment because the American founders specifically rejected it.”
“They didn’t want political disputes to become impeachments because that would shatter their separation of powers that vests the enforcement of the laws with the president — no matter how bad a job he does,” mentioned McClintock, R-Calif.
The failed push got here as a bipartisan deal to improve border safety collapsed in the Senate.
