House Republicans last Tuesday voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a tight 214-213 vote after the measure failed the week before, CBS News reported.
The first attempt to approve the two articles of impeachment introduced by the Homeland Security Committee on February 7 was defeated 214-216 after four Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the measure.
At the time, Republican Ken Buck of Colorado, one of the four Republicans who voted against impeachment, suggested that the House vote again once Majority Leader Steve Scalise returned to the Capitol. Scalise had been working remotely while receiving treatment for cancer.
With Scalise’s return last Tuesday, the House voted on the articles a second time. This time, only three Republicans joined the Democrats in voting against it, allowing the measure to pass.
President Biden blasted Republican lawmakers over Mayorkas’ impeachment, saying in a statement that it was a “blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship.” Biden accused House Republicans of playing “petty political games” to target “an honorable public servant.”
However, it is all but certain the Democrat-controlled Senate will refuse to convict the Homeland Security secretary, where even some Senate Republicans have expressed concerns about the unprecedented move.
According to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office, the Senate would begin the trial on February 26 after senators return from recess. However, some Republican senators fear that Democrats plan to cut the trial short without the Senate voting to convict or acquit.
In a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell this week, 13 Republicans urged the leader to join the effort to ensure that the Senate “fully engage our Constitutional duty and hold a trial” in Mayorkas’ impeachment, CBS News reported.
The senators warned that after the impeachment trial begins, the Democrats planned to table the articles, an action the Republicans said was “rarely contemplated and never taken” in the history of the country.
