Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was impeached by the House Tuesday night in a narrow 214 to 213 vote, becoming the first cabinet official to be impeached in almost a century and a half.
EAGLE PASS, TEXAS – JANUARY 08: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas holds a press conference at a U.S. Border Patrol station on January 08, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas. Mayorkas visited Texas border areas where large numbers of migrants had been crossing over the Rio Grande from Mexico just weeks before. The number has recently dropped dramatically, according to Mayorkas since the Mexican government ramped up enforcement actions, slowing many migrants from reaching the U.S. southern border. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
William Belknap, Secretary of War to President Ulysses S. Grant, was impeached by the House in 1876, despite resigning before the vote.
Belknap was acquitted by the Senate, an outcome sure to be repeated if the Senate does not procedurally kill Mayorkas’s impeachment.
Nevertheless, Republicans can claim they secured a rare opportunity in a bitterly divided Congress to hold the Biden administration accountable on what could be the election-defining issue of 2024.
“Secretary Mayorkas’s willful refusal to enforce federal law created an unprecedented crisis at our southern border and left innocent Americans to pay the price,” Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) told Breitbart News in an exclusive statement. “Because Mayorkas failed to do the honorable thing by resigning, House Republicans fulfilled our Constitutional duty by voting to impeach.”
Tuesday night’s outcome follows House Republicans’ failure by a single vote last week to impeach Mayorkas after a wheelchair-bound Rep. Al Green (D-TX) rolled into the House chamber from a Washington emergency room.
Republicans had not counted on Green making the vote, which proved decisive against impeachment.
House leadership moved forward with Tuesday night’s vote following the welcomed return of Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) who has been in Louisiana since December receiving treatment for cancer. A Tuesday special election in New York’s Third Congressional District would keep Mayorkas safe if called for former Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY).
Reps. Ken Buck (R-CO), Tom McClintock (R-CA), and Mike Gallagher R-WI) once again voted with Democrats against impeaching the embattled secretary, despite overwhelmingly popularity for the move among Republicans.
In a sign of the unpopularity of that position, after last week’s vote against impeachment, Gallagher announced his decision not to seek reelection to Congress.
The impeachment is a victory for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA), the loudest and most persistent champion of booting Mayorkas from the administration. She and her allies claim that Mayorkas has intentionally refused to follow existing laws and lied to Congress, clear grounds for impeachment.
Continue reading: Breitbart.com
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