House Republicans Try Again to Impeach Mayorkas on Border Charges

In a redo of their first failed attempt, Republicans are hoping to push through the charges that would make the homeland security secretary the first sitting cabinet member to be impeached.

  • Share full article

House Republicans Try Again to Impeach Mayorkas on Border Charges | INFBusiness.com

The House will once again take up a vote to impeach Alejandro N. Mayorkas on Tuesday after a failed attempt last week.

House Republicans will try on Tuesday for a second time to impeach Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, on charges of willfully refusing to enforce border laws and breaching the public trust, after their first attempt at the partisan indictment ended in a stunning defeat.

Three Republicans joined all Democrats last week in rejecting the impeachment charges, leaving the G.O.P., which has a tiny margin, just one vote short of a majority in a humiliating spectacle on the House floor.

The decisive moment came when Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, who Republicans had counted on missing the vote, arrived in a hospital garb fresh out of abdominal surgery to cast his “no” vote. With Representative Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana and the majority leader, absent while he underwent treatment for blood cancer, the G.O.P. was unable to make up the shortfall.

Republicans called Mr. Scalise back to Washington this week, and they were confident on Tuesday that their second attempt would be successful. That would put Mr. Mayorkas in the company of past presidents and administration officials who have been impeached on allegations of personal corruption, election interference and even fomenting an insurrection.

ImageRepresentative Steve Scalise has returned to Washington, and Republicans are confident they have the votes to impeach Mr. Mayorkas.Credit…Kenny Holston/The New York Times

But the charges Republicans have levied have broken with history by failing to identify any such offense, instead effectively declaring the policy choices of the Biden administration that he has carried out a constitutional crime. The approach threatened to lower the bar for impeachments — which already has fallen in recent years — reducing what was once Congress’s most powerful tool to remove despots from power to a weapon to be deployed in political fights.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Source: nytimes.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *