"Craven rodeo clowns": GOP called out for impeaching Mayorkas after "sabotaging" border security

House Republicans on Tuesday voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, accusing him of violating public trust, failing to impose U.S. border policy, and a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law.”

Conservative lawmakers attempted to impeach Mayorkas last week but were unsuccessful as three members — Reps. Ken Buck, R-Colo., Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., and Tom McClintock, R-Calif. — joined Democrats in shooting down the impeachment articles. The bipartisan move left many GOP lawmakers frustrated, as the notion of party agreement has become something of a taboo amongst some Republicans, as seen with the intense opposition to bipartisan-border related legislation only after former President Donald Trump spoke out against it.

Following the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said that Mayorkas “deserves to be impeached, and Congress has a constitutional obligation to do so."

House Homeland Security Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., who spearheaded the vote against Mayorkas, claimed, “He’s disregarding the laws that this body passed, basically disregarding the institution in the United States Congress, disregarding the Constitution in of itself, which says we write the laws and they execute them."

Multiple hearings were held to discuss Mayorkas' impeachment, during which Democrats also underscored previous and ethically questionable border proposals made by Trump, including building alligator moats along the border. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed that the 214-213 vote did not contain “a shred of evidence or legitimate Constitutional grounds," echoing sentiment from many Democrats who have said that the impeachment proceedings were both unfounded and politically motivated. 

“House Republicans will be remembered by history for trampling on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve the serious challenges at our border," DHS spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement, according to The Hill. "While Secretary Mayorkas was helping a group of Republican and Democratic Senators develop bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security and get needed resources for enforcement, House Republicans have wasted months with this baseless, unconstitutional impeachment."

“Without a shred of evidence or legitimate Constitutional grounds, and despite bipartisan opposition, House Republicans have falsely smeared a dedicated public servant who has spent more than 20 years enforcing our laws and serving our country," Ehrenberg continued. "Secretary Mayorkas and the Department of Homeland Security will continue working every day to keep Americans safe.”

“After Extreme MAGA Republicans’ first impeachment vote turned into an epic fail on the House floor last week, the tainted vote tonight was an absolute travesty,” Rep. Bennie Thomspon, D-Miss., said in a statement.

“Instead of providing the Department of Homeland Security the resources it needs or working together towards a bipartisan solution, they have rejected any solution for the sole reason that they can have a political wedge issue in an election year,” Thompson added. “History will judge what Republicans did tonight, and it won’t be favorably. They threw the integrity of the House, the Constitution, as well as any glimmer of hope of working together, under the bus.”

"Impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas, utterly without grounds, demonstrates again how utterly without moral values are House Republicans," claimed Norman Ornstein, a contributing editor at The Atlantic and emeritus scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "In over 50 years close to Congress, I have seen nothing close to this immoral and despicable behavior. Their oaths mean nothing to them."

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Bloomberg Opinion editor and MSNBC political analyst Tim O'Brien called the House GOP "craven rodeo clowns" on X/Twitter after the vote.

"The House — after intentionally sabotaging a bi-partisan bill meant to address the immigration crisis at the southern border — votes to impeach Mayorkas for … wait for it … failing to address the immigration crisis at the border," he wrote.

Republican strategist Susan Del Percio during an appearance on MSNBC, said the vote "will show just how ridiculous the House is acting."

"They’re trying to impeach someone who’s trying to improve our border security," she said. "We could disagree on the means but there was a bipartisan deal on the table and Republican members of the House, some of them said ‘no, we don’t think this is worth our time.’ So now they’re trying to impeach Mayorkas, which is just ridiculous.”