Republicans in the U.S. House fell apart in spectacular fashion on Tuesday night, failing to wrangle the chamber they lead by a razor-thin majority in time to get two consecutive votes rammed through, including an impeachment vote they’ve been crowing about for months.
First, the GOP tripped at the finish line in attempting to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whom they have accused of both “breach of public trust” and “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law.”
The motion was rejected in a 214-216 vote, with four Republicans crossing the aisle to join the Democrats in backing Mayorkas. The two expected “nay” Republicans, Reps. Tom McClintock (CA) and Ken Buck (CO), were joined at the last second by Rep. Mike Gallagher (WI), igniting a flurry of activity on the House floor, with Gallagher’s colleagues rushing over to him, according to The Hill.
Then, just as the vote was closing, Rep. Blake D. Moore (UT) flipped his “aye” vote. He also moved to reconsider the matter, a motion that allows Republicans to reinitiate the vote at a later date—possibly as early as Wednesday.
Legal experts have repeatedly debunked the idea that Mayorkas is anything but a scapegoat for Republicans frustrated with the ongoing border crisis. “Dislike of a president’s policy is certainly not one of [the grounds for impeachment],” Frank Bowman, a University of Missouri School of Law professor emeritus, told Congress last month.
After the vote, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) was quick to declare on the steps of the Capitol that the party would try to impeach Mayorkas again. She pointed out that the GOP had been missing House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (LA), who was absent as he recovers from cancer treatment.
“We look forward to having him come back, and we look forward to him being a solid ‘yes,’” she said, adding that she hopes the other holdouts hear from their constituents on the matter.
A spokesperson for House Speaker Mike Johnson reiterated the goal. “House Republicans fully intend to bring Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas back to the floor when we have the votes for passage,” Raj Shah tweeted.
The GOP’s hopes were scuppered not only by members of their own party, but by the surprise appearance of at least one Democrat whose absence had been counted upon. Rep. Al Green (D-TX) voted “nay” after being wheeled out onto the floor wearing blue hospital scrubs and socks, NBC News reported.
“I had to go to the emergency room and I had to have surgery, so it’s not easy to leave a hospital and get back here,” Green said, according to the network. “So I always intended to show up. Mr. Mayorkas is a good man; that was a bad move. I had to be here.”
In a statement to The Daily Beast on Tuesday night, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson blasted Republicans for wasting time on the “baseless” allegations against Mayorkas, which have taken months to unspool.
“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,” said the spokesperson, Mia Ehrenberg.
That agreement, a $118 billion Senate deal, proposes sending aid to Israel and Ukraine, as well as a near-total overhaul of migration and asylum policies. It was literally declared D.O.A. by Republican leadership within hours of its release on Sunday night.
“This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created,” Speaker Johnson tweeted. “If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival.”
Instead, Republican lawmakers proposed a standalone $17 billion aid package to Israel, which failed mere minutes after the Mayorkas vote. Falling far short of the required two-thirds majority, the package was shouted down 250 to 180.
Johnson left the Capitol on Tuesday night without taking questions, according to reporters on the Hill.
In a statement, he slammed Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, blaming them for the standalone package’s failure as House Republicans tried to work “in good faith.”
“It is clear [Democrats] are now committed to using Israel aid as leverage to force through other priorities that do not enjoy nearly the same degree of consensus,” he fumed. “Leveraging Israel aid as it fights for survival is wrong. The White House and Congressional Democrats should be ashamed.”
“It’s like House Republicans looked at the wildly embarrassing day Senate Republicans had,” Schumer observed caustically after the dust had settled, “and thought: You know what? We can trump that.”
Read More: House GOP Suffers Spectacular Double Fail on Alejandro Mayorkas’ Impeachment,