Why GOP holdouts killed effort to impeach Mayorkas: ‘Worst Cabinet official’ but no crime

The House rejected an effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday after four Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the measure, dealing a blow to GOP leadership. 

Republican lawmakers sought to impeach Mayorkas on two charges, including willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law as well as a breach of the public trust. However, four GOP lawmakers crossed party lines to shoot down the effort, arguing the evidence did not amount to criminal activity. 

“I think that Mayorkas is the worst Cabinet official in probably my lifetime,” Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), who voted against the measure, told the Washington Examiner. “But it doesn’t mean that he has committed a high crime or misdemeanor.”

Buck was the first Republican to come out publicly against the impeachment effort, arguing the charges against Mayorkas stem from mere policy differences, which he said wouldn’t be changed by his removal from the Biden administration. 

“We know sending this over to a Democratic Senate, they’re not going to convict on this,” he said. “And if they did convict, the only thing that’s going to happen is Biden will appoint somebody else who is equally or maybe worse than Mayorkas.”

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) also came out against impeachment just hours before the House voted on the resolution, citing similar concerns with the constitutionality of such charges. McClintock even went so far as to say the articles of impeachment “stretch and distort the Constitution in order to hold the administration accountable for stretching and distorting the law.” 

“The problem is they fail to identify an impeachable crime that Mayorkas has committed,” he wrote in a 10-page memo. 

The pair also pointed to the impeachments of former President Donald Trump, claiming the same arguments apply to these charges. 

“During the Trump impeachments, the parties’ roles were reversed,” McClintock wrote. “[The Homeland Security Committee] should be careful not to risk its reputation — and that of the House of Representatives — by basing such a momentous step on such soft and shifting sand.”

Other members kept their cards close to their chests and didn’t reveal how they’d vote until they reached the floor. That resulted in Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) voting against the measure, which some GOP leaders said they suspected but weren’t positive about until the vote was cast. 

Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) was the fourth Republican to vote against the measure, but that was a last-minute switch done strategically so GOP leadership can bring the legislation back to the floor at a later time. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) office has already indicated the resolution will be brought back “when they have the votes for passage.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who sponsored the impeachment resolution, said another vote could come as early as next week. 

“This is not over yet, and we still can bring back Steve Scalise,” she said, referring to the Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), who has been absent for cancer treatment. His absence is what caused Republicans to be one vote short of the majority. 

“We hope that he’s well and he can come back very soon,” she added. “We look forward to having him come back. And we look forward to him being a solid yes.”

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In the meantime, Greene expressed confidence that the three GOP holdouts will “hear from their constituents” over the weekend and possibly change their minds. However, that may be easier said than done, especially as some lawmakers such as Buck said Republicans have “other tools in our toolbox” to fix the crisis at the border. 

“We can shut down the government and tell the Biden administration to clean up the border or you’re not going to get funding for these positions that are nonessential,” he said. “We could use the Holman rule and we could defund Secretary Mayorkas’s position [or] his salary. Those are things that we can do. But we know that sending [impeachment] over to Democrats in the Senate, it wouldn’t work.”