House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was dealt a brutal blow Tuesday evening after Republican dissenters caused upsets in two major floor votes on the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and a billion-dollar aid bill for Israel.
Mayorkas narrowly escaped being indicted by the House on two counts in what GOP leadership had anticipated to be a close but sure bet. Four Republicans voted against the measures, though one did so as a procedural move so the bill could be brought back in the near future.
House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) each told the Washington Examiner after the vote that they expect leadership to bring the resolution back to the floor for a vote sometime next week.
Lawmakers voted by a narrow margin of 214-216 to reject the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas. While two Republicans had announced their defections ahead of the vote, leadership projected some level of confidence the impeachment would succeed despite the slim majority. But the appearance of Rep. Al Green (D-TX) in a wheelchair after undergoing surgery threw off the math.
Johnson was seen meeting with Republican members on the floor during the vote in an effort to flip one of the three GOP no’s back into his pocket. Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Tom McClintock (R-CA), and Ken Buck (R-CO) voted against the impeachment articles with all Democrats.
Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) was not present, as expected, due to health problems, but Green’s last-minute appearance ultimately tipped the scales in Democrat’s favor to tank the impeachment vote.
The fourth GOP no came when Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) changed his vote from being in favor of impeaching Mayorkas to against so the GOP could procedurally bring up the articles again.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) said Republicans will retake the issue “next week,” with Johnson’s office saying the measures will be brought back to the floor when Republicans “have the votes for passage.”
Scalise, who has been undergoing cancer treatment, is expected back this month, meaning Republicans would likely be able to narrowly push through an impeachment vote.
Greene also stated that bringing the articles against Mayorkas back to the floor next week was a possibility, as the conference looks “forward to having [Scalise] come back. And we look forward to him being a solid yes.”
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), whose district runs along 800 miles of the 2,000-mile southern border, backed the GOP calls for a second vote.
“I will not STOP until Secretary Mayorkas is IMPEACHED. House Republicans will hold the administration accountable, no matter how many votes it takes!” Gonzales wrote in a post to X following the vote.
The Department of Homeland Security chided House Republicans over the Tuesday vote failure and for vowing to continue until Mayorkas was impeached.
“This baseless impeachment should never have moved forward; it faces bipartisan opposition and legal experts resoundingly say it is unconstitutional,” said DHS spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg. “If House Republicans are serious about border security, they should abandon these political games, and instead support the bipartisan national security agreement in the Senate to get DHS the enforcement resources we need. Secretary Mayorkas remains focused on working across the aisle to promote real solutions at the border and keep our country safe.”
The second vote to fail was a $17.6 billion stand-alone aid bill to help Israel in its war against the terrorist organization Hamas unveiled by Johnson over the weekend. Johnson’s bill came in response to reports about what would be included in the Senate’s bipartisan border deal, an agreement that House GOP leadership has since declared dead on arrival.
The Israel aid required two-thirds of the House to support it, but failed with 14 Republicans voting against it and 166 Democrats after President Joe Biden issued a veto threat.
Johnson blamed Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for the aid bill’s failure after Democrats gathered earlier in the day to rally against supporting Johnson’s bill because it was not part of the bigger bill negotiated in the Senate that included funding for Ukraine.
“After nearly four months of waiting for the Senate to act, House Republicans, working in good faith, placed a clean, stand-alone bill on the floor, a major concession we were willing to make given the gravity of the situation, to address Democrats’ stated concerns with the prior aid package,” Johnson said. “The decision by President Biden and Leader Schumer to torpedo this bill to aid the Israeli people in their fight against Hamas is a disappointing rebuke to our closest ally in the Middle East at their time of great need.”
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Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, issued a stark warning for Republicans who are still intent on impeaching Mayorkas.
“This sham impeachment vote failed because it had no foundation in the Constitution. It failed because the secretary has committed no ‘high crime or misdemeanor.’ It failed because impeachment would do nothing to secure the border,” Thompson said in a statement. “If Republicans continue down this path, history will judge them, and it won’t be favorably. This nonsense must stop.”
