Jennie Taer
- House Speaker Kevin McCarthy isn’t on board yet with his conservative colleagues pushing to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, he told Politico.
- McCarthy is not the only member of the GOP caucus who’s not convinced by the impeachment efforts, and there are concerns that there wouldn’t be enough votes at this point to move forward in the process.
- “The only time you use impeachment is if someone has done something that rises to impeachment,” McCarthy told POLITICO, noting ongoing committee probes.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is not yet convinced by his own party’s push to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, according to Politico.
More conservative House Republicans are finding it more difficult to get McCarthy, along with the more moderate members of the party, to join their efforts, Politico reported. Several House Republicans, including Pat Fallon of Texas and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, have already filed articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.
McCarthy, however, isn’t sure impeachment is warranted when it comes to Mayorkas, who Republicans have scrutinized for his handling of a surge in illegal immigration at the southern border during his tenure at DHS, he told Politico.
“The only time you use impeachment is if someone has done something that rises to impeachment,” McCarthy told POLITICO, noting ongoing committee probes.
The House Homeland Security Committee is one of the committee’s investigating Mayorkas. Their multi-phased investigation has so far focused on Mayorkas’ handling of the southern border, his alleged “dereliction of duty” and the rise of cartels and fentanyl trafficking in the region.
The committee’s chairman, Republican Tennessee Rep. Mark Green, however, previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that he’d like to see the results of the committee’s probe before taking a stance on impeachment.
In the committee’s more than 100 pages of initial findings in the investigation, it alleges Mayorkas “ignored” laws and lied to Congress.
“Mayorkas is not an innocent bystander at the mercy of the federal bureaucracy, global events, or political opponents—he is the chief architect of the illegal immigration crisis that Americans have suffered through since January 2021. He has either willfully sparked the current crisis through his extreme and irresponsible policies, or is such a poorly informed, inefficient, and inflexible leader that he is negligent in his duties,” the report read.
Meanwhile, members of the more conservative wing of the party are concerned they don’t have the votes to impeach Mayorkas.
“Some of my colleagues get hung up on high crimes and misdemeanors in a way that they don’t want to take that step with respect to Mayorkas. I disagree,” Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said of his colleagues’ apprehensiveness, according to Politico.
“We have what — a majority of three, or four or five depending on the day and people’s health? So, if there’s a handful of people that don’t cross the line, that’s where we are,” Roy said.
One way of salvaging impeachment could be the looming Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government, Roy, who has vowed to hold up DHS funding until more is done to secure the southern border, told Politico.
Republican Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee and is also a member of the Freedom Caucus, appears to be one of the more conservative holdouts, according to Politico.
“Think about it — you replace Mayorkas with another Biden appointee,” Buck said, adding that impeachment is “a rare occurrence. It’s supposed to be.”
Republican Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon told Politico that impeaching Mayorkas isn’t something his colleagues have recently discussed, adding that the action wouldn’t change much at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“In the end, what are you going to get?” Bacon asked. “You’re going to get Biden’s policies.”
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