WASHINGTON – The House voted Monday evening to set aside a long-shot bid from conservative firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Lawmakers effectively dismissed the resolution by a bipartisan vote of 209-201 by referring it to the House Homeland Security Committee. That blocked the push from Greene, who introduced the resolution as “privileged,” which forced the lower chamber to consider it on the floor within two legislative days.
Eight Republicans joined all Democrats to defeat the measure: Cliff Bentz of California, Ken Buck of Colorado, Darrell Issa of California, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, Tom McClintock of California, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, John Duarte of California and Mike Turner of Ohio.
“I’m outraged,” a frustrated Greene said leaving the Capitol building after the House turned down her resolution. “I can assure you that Republican voters will be extremely angry that they’ve done this.”
Greene said she is considering introducing the resolution again at some point in the future and added she could put it on the floor as privileged again to force the House to take up another vote.
The Department of Homeland Security slammed Greene’s impeachment effort and said Congress
must “stop wasting time.”
“Secretary Mayorkas continues to be laser-focused on the safety and security of our nation. This baseless attack is completely without merit and a harmful distraction from our critical national security priorities,” a spokesperson for the department said in a statement.
The move garnered some support from GOP lawmakers, including Republican leaders – House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., announced his support for impeaching Mayorkas in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“A vote to impeach Mayorkas is a vote to get our border under control. I’ll be voting to impeach,” Emmer said Sunday.
Some members of the House Republican conference have clamored to impeach Mayorkas amid the migrant crisis at the southern border. Those members, including Greene, say he has failed to uphold his duty as Homeland Security secretary. The last and only time the House impeached a Cabinet member was in 1876.
However, calls to impeach Mayorkas died down following the opening of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The defeat of Greene’s resolution highlights how House Republicans have zeroed in on impeaching the president rather than his Cabinet members.
