The House of Representatives voted not to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas after multiple attempts. A minority of Republicans killed the vote as Democrats voted upon party lines against it.
The initial vote was 215-215 until Representative Blake Moore (R-UT) changed his vote to no so the bill could be reconsidered. It officially was tallied as a 216-214 failure.
The three Republicans (four if you count Rep. Moore) who voted against the bill include Representatives Ken Buck (R-CO), Tom McClintock (R-CA), and Mike Gallagher (R-WI).
The proceeding – triggered by the majority of Republicans’ belief that Secretary Mayorkas has neglected his post and committed dereliction of duty – will keep the Homeland Security Secretary from standing trial in the Senate (for now).
Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) Deputy Chief for Communications Raj Shah said that Republicans in the House will bring the effort back to the lower chamber "when [the GOP] has the votes."
House Republicans fully intend to bring Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas back to the floor when we have the votes for passage.
— Raj Shah (@RajShahDC) February 7, 2024
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) was the only absent representative for the vote. With his support, the bill would've passed. He did not attend as he is currently undergoing cancer treatment.
Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) spoke with The Floridian to discuss Secretary Mayorkas’ endorsement of the Senate border deal. He said it “tells you everything you need to know” about him.
“I think that’ll tell you everything you need to know, the guy who’s leaving our borders wide open and exposed to dangerous cartels, endangering the American people. That guy says we should support the bill? I would do the exact opposite,” said Rep. Roy.
Furthermore, Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) sat down with The Floridian to talk about Mayorkas and the prospect of his impeachment.
We asked if the impeachment of Mayorkas could lead to the impeachment of President Joe Biden (D), as one could argue that if Mayorkas is indeed breaking the law, he is doing so with the blessings of the President.
Rep. Diaz-Balart responded that a “case-by-case basis” perspective is necessary.
“It’s a case-by-case basis and impeachment is not a simple thing, number one. Number two is you have to trust the people who were in those committees and jurisdictions like Carlos Gimenez who’s been working day in and day out on that issue.”
He continued, “You could always argue that anything we do could have a precedent someplace else. The question is, has Secretary Mayorkas lied to Congress? I think the evidence is pretty clear that he has. Is he doing his job? It’s pretty clear that unless you think his job was to just open the border and let everybody in and destroy even the legal process of coming in. If that’s what his job was, he’s done that pretty well.”
