The GOP-led House failed in a GOP-led bid to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday evening, a humiliating outcome for the party after months of assurances it would eject the Department of Homeland Security secretary over border security.
The motion was rejected in a 214-216 vote, with four Republicans crossing the aisle to join the Democrats in backing Mayorkas. They were identified as Reps. Blake D. Moore (UT), Mike Gallagher (WI), Tom McClintock (CA) and Ken Buck (CO) by The Washington Post.
In a statement to The Daily Beast, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson blasted Republicans for wasting time on a “baseless” impeachment.
“If House Republicans are serious about border security, they should abandon these political games, and instead support the bipartisan national security agreement in the Senate to get DHS the enforcement resources we need,” said the spokesperson, Mia Ehrenberg.
That agreement, a $118 billion Senate deal, proposes sending aid to Israel and Ukraine, as well as a near-total overhaul of migration and asylum policies. It was literally declared D.O.A. by Republican leadership within hours of its release on Sunday night.
“This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created,” House Speaker Mike Johnson tweeted. “If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival.”
Instead, Republican lawmakers proposed a standalone $17 billion aid package to Israel, which failed within minutes of the Mayorkas vote. Falling far short of the required two-thirds majority, the package was shouted down 250 to 180.
Johnson left the Capitol on Tuesday night without taking questions, according to reporters on the Hill.
But other Republicans were eager to speak on the matter, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) declaring on the steps of the Capitol that the party would try to impeach Mayorkas again. She pointed out that the GOP had been missing House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (LA), who was absent as he recovers from cancer treatment.
One of the four Republicans who voted against Mayorkas’ impeachment, Utah’s Moore, also moved to reconsider the matter, a motion that allows Republicans to reinitiate the vote at a later date—possibly as early as Tuesday.
Greene said that she hoped that the three other holdouts would change their minds, according to The New York Times. “My colleagues who voted no,” she said, “I think they’ll be hearing from their constituents.”
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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