Last year, we saw a small number of House Republicans turn on the entire party. These “hardliners” threw Congress into chaos, but using a procedural rule to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The House was unable to do anything for weeks, even as Israel was attacked.
It seems that, unlike Democrats, Republicans are unable to get their members to unite all the time. There are too many, possibly, that side with the establishment or their own interests.
This week, the House held a critical vote. This vote could have sent a strong message to the Biden administration—holding its officials accountable. But, instead of doing that, two Republicans turned on the party yet again.
In a 214 to 216 vote, the House voted against the impeachment of Biden’s DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The impeachment motion was brought by House Republicans who are fed up with Mayorkas’ handling of the US-Mexico border, across which millions of illegal immigrants have been admitted entry under Mayorkas’ watch.
Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene has been fighting to impeach Mayorkas for months. She’s brought a motion to impeach many times and has been rebuffed each time. Republicans who voted against impeachment were Colorado’s Ken Buck, Wisconsin’s Mike Gallagher, California’s Tom McClintock, and Utah’s Blake Moore, who switched his vote from yea to nay at the last moment, which enables Republicans to bring up a Motion to Reconsider at a later time for a fresh vote.
Moore’s vote against impeachment changed the vote from a tie to one in which he was a part of the majority. [Source: The Post Millennial]
The 3 no votes against impeaching Mayorkas were:
Mike Gallagher (WI-08)
Tom McClintock (CA-05)
Ken Buck (CO-04)Blake Moore changed his vote no when asked by leadership for procedural reasons to make a motion to reconsider so that we can vote on impeachment again next week.…
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) February 7, 2024
The House failed to impeach DHS head Alejandro Mayorkas, who is largely responsible for the three-year border crisis hammering the country. House Republicans would have been able to impeach Mayorkas, had not two Republicans voted with Democrats.
Reps. Ken Buck and Mike Gallagher voted against impeaching Mayorkas, despite a long trial of evidence suggesting the DHS head has been allowing the migrant explosion. On the insistence of party leadership, Rep. Blake Moore chanted his vote of yes to no, to avoid a tie.
Because there was no tie, it allows the House to hold another impeachment vote next week. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was optimistic that the measure would pass the second time, once House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is back in person to vote.
Ironically, Republicans voted last year to kick George Santos out of Congress—despite the fact he had not been convicted of a crime. Had Santos been in office this week, he would have undoubtedly voted to impeach Mayorkas, eliminating this stand-off.
It is unknown why Buck and Gallagher voted against the party’s agenda. But it is part of a larger problem within the GOP, where too many members prioritize the D.C. establishment’s agenda or their own self-interests.
Author: Kit Fargo
