House GOP fails to impeach Mayorkas over border handling

[Elderberry]

Politico by Jordain Carney 2/6/2024

The unsuccessful vote will likely pour new fuel on conservatives’ simmering frustrations.

House Republicans’ high-stakes gamble to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas unraveled on Tuesday, an embarrassing political setback for an already embattled majority.

The articles of impeachment against the Homeland Security secretary failed in an 214-216 vote after four Republicans sided with Democrats to oppose recommending Mayorkas be booted from office. It's yet another instance of a GOP effort falling victim to the party’s narrow House majority, and the failure will likely pour new fuel on conservatives’ simmering frustrations.

The high-profile defeat solidified Tuesday night, as Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) joined other known Republican "no" votes and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) was the only member absent. Johnson had pushed ahead with the effort and predicted to reporters hours earlier that he believed they would have the votes, even as he faced growing skepticism from within own ranks and multiple holdouts refused to sign on.

Republicans have been building their case to impeach Mayorkas for months, advancing articles last week that accused him of breach of public trust and refusing to comply with the law. If they’d been successful, it would’ve been the first impeachment of a Cabinet official since 1876.

More: https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/02/06/congress/mayorkas-impeachment-fails-00139994

[mrclose]

REPUBLICAN NO VOTES:

Rep. Tom McClintock (CA-05)
Rep. Ken Buck (CO-04)
Rep. Mike Gallagher (WI-08)
Rep. Blake Moore (UT-01)

[mystery-ak]

damnit!

[bigheadfred]

REPUBLICAN NO VOTES:

Rep. Tom McClintock (CA-05)
Rep. Ken Buck (CO-04)
Rep. Mike Gallagher (WI-08)
Rep. Blake Moore (UT-01)

Traitors

[rustynail]

 ‘When you strike at a king, you must kill him.’

[Fishrrman]

Say, was it such a good idea to kick out that guy Santos?
Who had a 100% conservative voting record (if I recall)...?

Once again, the Congressional Pubbies demonstrate why they are the losing party.
And why -- on a national scale -- they may never rise above being that.

Even if Mr. Trump wins in November AND drags a winning majority into both the House and Senate on his coattails, watch them turn their backs on him again.

[mystery-ak]

Say, was it such a good idea to kick out that guy Santos?
Who had a 100% conservative voting record (if I recall)...?

Once again, the Congressional Pubbies demonstrate why they are the losing party.
And why -- on a national scale -- they may never rise above being that.

Even if Mr. Trump wins in November AND drags a winning majority into both the House and Senate on his coattails, watch them turn their backs on him again.

Exactly...

[Hoodat]

Traitors

Bigtime.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

Things are so much better since giving McCarthy the boot....

[libertybele]

damnit!

 

[Bigun]

Traitors

  Every last one of them!

[Smokin Joe]

Every last one of them!

[Hoodat]

Things are so much better since giving McCarthy the boot....

With McCarthy, there would have been a couple dozen GOP votes.

[mountaineer]

NOTE: Scalise is undergoing cancer treatment.

End Wokeness
@EndWokeness
IMPORTANT: Rep. Blake Moore is a yes and only voted no in order to get a motion to reconsider when Rep. Scalise (yes) gets back from surgery.
The other 3 need to lose their jobs ASAP.
7:13 PM · Feb 6, 2024

Greg Price
@greg_price11
A 4th Republican Blake Moore (UT) flipped to No at the end. The reason he did it was NOT because he opposed it. It was so Republicans could bring up a Motion to Reconsider so they could bring the impeachment resolution back up again for a later vote.
6:51 PM · Feb 6, 2024

Jonathan Tamari
@JonathanTamari
Dem Rep. Al Greene - wheeled in just as the vote appeared headed toward a tie, no shoes on, in what looked like hospital scrubs as pants - said he had surgery. But came to vote against the impeachment.   Hakeem Jeffries shook his hand after he arrived
6:49 PM · Feb 6, 2024

Greg Price
@greg_price11
Democrats win because they literally roll their members in from an operating room to the House floor just to save a cabinet official from impeachment.  Wish we had that ruthlessness on our side
7:21 PM · Feb 6, 2024

[libertybele]

Every last one of them!

 

[Timber Rattler]

1)  Mike Johnson doesn't know how to count votes or twist arms, and

2) I remember when Ken Buck was all about draining the swamp.  Now he's become a swamp monster himself.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTk5iyLxXk0

[libertybele]

1)  Mike Johnson doesn't know how to count votes or twist arms, and

2) I remember when Ken Buck was all about draining the swamp.  Now he's become a swamp monster himself.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTk5iyLxXk0

Mike Johnson has turned out to be just as much of a disappointment as McCarthy.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

With McCarthy, there would have been a couple dozen GOP votes.

How many failed impeachment votes were there on McCarthy's watch?

Conservatives bitched at him because he didn't pass more conservative legislation as if he somehow controlled the votes of other House members.  He didn't.  And I'll keep saying it -- the problem was not McCarthy.  The problem was the lack of a conservative majority, and changing Speakers was never going to change that.  We got someone who everyone loved initially, until they found out that there wasn't really anything he could do differently because he's just as hamstrung as was McCarthy.  Wouldn't make a damn bit of difference if Matt Gaetz himself was the Speaker. 

I never had an issue with replacing McCarthy.  I had a huge issue with replacing him in the middle of his term as Speaker, in the process blowing the best shot we had for meaningful border reform, and looking like a bunch of incompetent boobs.  It's now February, and we still haven't passed those appropriations bills from the fiscal year that ended last September because the votes weren't there then, and they're not their now.   I mean, the idea that we're still enamored with the idea of passing those things from last year without having done squat for this fiscal year is laughable.

Idealism is great.  Idealism that isn't tempered by reality is simple foolishness.

[Timber Rattler]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/06/house-republicans-yell-gallagher-impeachment-vote/?wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F3ca9ab9%2F65c3b8c83b7ab413cd717a51%2F596d3230ade4e24119de4e9b%2F5%2F53%2F65c3b8c83b7ab413cd717a51

Moments before the vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas narrowly failed Tuesday evening, a chaotic scene unfolded on the House floor.

The vote had unexpectedly come to a tie after three Republican lawmakers bucked party lines to vote against the measure. Two of those lawmakers — Reps. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.) — had previously said publicly that they would not support the impeachment, citing lack of evidence that Mayorkas had committed high crimes and misdemeanors. But a third, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), had stayed mum about how he would vote, hours after warning his GOP colleagues behind closed doors that impeaching the first Cabinet secretary in 150 years would open “Pandora’s box.”

Gallagher ultimately voted no, which Republican leaders accepted since they could lose three votes to launch the first impeachment of the 118th Congress. But minutes later, the vote arrived at a 215-215 tie, an unexpected turn of events that stunned the House floor into a standstill.

Soon, the Wisconsin Republican was swarmed on the House floor by his colleagues, who engaged in an apparent last-ditch attempt to change his mind. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has tried multiple times to force the House to expedite impeaching Mayorkas, was spotted shouting at Gallagher. She was soon joined by Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee who spearheaded the investigation into Mayorkas. Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Tex.), a close ally of Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.), then animatedly tried to persuade Gallagher to flip his vote as Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) listened in.

As the vote stayed open after time had expired, Democrats shouted “Order! Order!” in unison to bring the tied vote to a close. Gallagher stood listening with his arms folded across his chest as he intermittently gesticulated and shook his head. He was unmoved.

EXCERPT

Rank incompetence and buffoonery.

[Mod2]

topics merged

[andy58-in-nh]

Democrats:


Republicans:

[mountaineer]

Why is @SecMayorkas spending more time personally securing the Super Bowl than the border?

https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1755586723646472205

[HikerGuy83]

Every last one of them!

They'll likely be re-elected and continue on as if nothing had happened.

Of course, Johnson was stupid to even start this without a tsunami of support. 

These guys may look like traitors to a few of you, but the whole GOP HOUSE looks like a bus full of FOOLS.

[HikerGuy83]

Why is @SecMayorkas spending more time personally securing the Super Bowl than the border?

https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1755586723646472205

So, tell me again, why did the senate kill a bill that would start to bring things under control ?

I can't wait to hear about how 100% of nothing is better than 50% of something.

[HikerGuy83]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/06/house-republicans-yell-gallagher-impeachment-vote/?wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F3ca9ab9%2F65c3b8c83b7ab413cd717a51%2F596d3230ade4e24119de4e9b%2F5%2F53%2F65c3b8c83b7ab413cd717a51

EXCERPT

Rank incompetence and buffoonery.

On the part of Johnson ?  I would agree.

First, I agree that this whole impeachment thing was no better than the stupid efforts on the part of Adam Schiff-for-brains.  Now the GOP wants to impeach anyone who disagrees with them.

The democrats are going to have a field day with this.  And, as someone who works in the party, I can tell you there are many registered republicans who are just a bad day away from leaving the party.  And we give them all kinds of reasons.

Great job folks.