MAYORKAS IMPEACHED
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas yesterday became only the second presidential cabinet member ever to be impeached in the 236-year history of the United States government.
Mayorkas was impeached on two counts relating to his handling of the border crisis by a vote of 214–213, with all but three Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats opposing the action. The chamber burst into applause after the result was announced.
This was Republicans’ second bid to impeach Mayorkas in a week. The previous vote, held exactly one week before, failed on a vote of 214–216.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who was absent from the vote last week due to being treated for blood cancer, cast the deciding vote yesterday night.
Republicans were overjoyed at the successful outcome after the vote.
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Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), speaking to The Epoch Times, called the impeachment “a beautiful thing and long overdue.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a staunch supporter of the effort, called it “a historic day.”
“I’m very thankful to our Republican conference for finally working together and standing with the American people to send the message to the Biden administration that it’s our border that matters, not other country’s borders, our border matters,” she told reporters after the vote.
“I think that the American people have been asking for accountability. You can’t argue with the failures of Mayorkas,” Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) agreed, before citing statistics on the border crisis, including more than 8 million illegal crossings since President Biden took office.
DHS and President Joe Biden were less enthusiastic, however.
“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,” Mia Ehrenberg, a DHS spokesman, said in a statement after the vote.
Biden decried the impeachment, calling it a “blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship” on the part of House Republicans, whom he accused of “playing politics with the border.”
With the passage of the measure through the lower chamber, it’s now up to the Senate—where Democrats hold the majority—to decide Mayorkas’ fate.
Given that a two-thirds majority is needed to convict, the Senate is all but certain to acquit Mayorkas, if the measure comes to a trial.
But even that’s uncertain as many Democrats have floated alternatives and procedural maneuvers that could avoid the thorny issue altogether.
—Joseph Lord and Mark Tapscott
UKRAINE BILL’S UNCERTAIN PATH IN THE HOUSE
A Senate-passed national security package is facing an uncertain future in the House of Representatives.
After a weekend’s worth of work, the $95 billion bill to fund Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan passed the Senate in a 70–29 vote, setting itself up to come to the House.
This package, of course, was the plan B after the spectacular collapse of a broader $118 billion foreign aid package that also some reforms to U.S. border policy that drew fierce backlash from Republicans, including former President Donald Trump.
But like its predecessor, this package is far from popular among House Republicans.
In a statement posted to X right before the bill’s passage in the Senate, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) blasted the proposal.
Johnson said that senators “should have gone back to the drawing board” to bolster the border provisions of the prior proposal instead of throwing out the border provisions altogether.
“Instead, the Senate’s foreign aid bill is silent on the most pressing issue facing our country,” Johnson said.
Other House Republicans agreed.
“There’s nothing about border security for the United States in there,” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas). “Speaker Johnson said it’s dead on arrival. It should be dead on arrival. That is not putting America first.”
Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) said it’s not even “a national security” bill. Instead, he told The Epoch Times, it’s a “foreign aid bill.”
“I’m a hard no,” Mills said. “I don’t even think it should be brought to the floor at all.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has threatened to bring a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair against Johnson if he so much as brings the legislation to the floor.
Facing clear opposition from the majority, some Democratic proponents of the legislation have suggested using a discharge petition for the bill—a move that would go over Johnson’s head and force a vote on the legislation.
If all House Democrats were to support a discharge petition, then it would take just four House Republicans supporting it to bring a House vote on the aid package, and the bill could pass by a similar margin.
Johnson has rejected such an effort.
“I certainly oppose it, and I hope that it would not be considered,” Mr. Johnson told Politico on Tuesday.
These are long odds for the bill to overcome, and this legislation too could be dead already.
—Joseph Lord
DEMOCRATS FLIP NY SEAT VACATED BY SANTOS
As a powerful winter storm bore down on them, voters in New York’s 3rd Congressional District chose a familiar face, Democrat Tom Suozzi, to serve the Long Island and Queens communities once represented by Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.)
Suozzi’s opponent, GOP Nassau County Legislator Mazi Pilip, came out the loser.
“We are fighters. Yes, we lost, but it doesn’t mean we are going to end here,” Pilip said after the race was called.
Suozzi, who previously held the seat, in his victory speech said, “We, you won this race because we addressed the issues and we found a way to bind our divisions”
“The answer is to bring people together,” he told a raucous crowd of supporters at Crest Hollow Country Club in Long Island.
With Suozzi’s victory, the narrow GOP majority gets even narrower with 219 members to the 213 Democrats in the chamber—meaning Republicans can only afford to lose two votes in on partisan bills.
This has ramifications for issues ranging from government funding to foreign assistance, especially for Ukraine and Israel in light of the Senate passing its $95.3 billion package.
—Nathan Worcester and Jackson Richman
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack testifies before the House Agriculture Committee.
- Trump holds a campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina
“Bidenomics” might be a jobs bonanza for some—but native-born Americans may not be the beneficiaries.
A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies reveals that there were almost 3 million more immigrants employed in the United States by late 2023 as compared with late 2019. Yet, over that same period, employment among native-born Americans actually fell, with 183,000 fewer Americans employed in late 2023 as against late 2019.
Speaking of Joe Biden, the House Oversight Committee has revealed bombshell Congressional testimony from a former business partner of Hunter Biden, Rob Walker. Walker testified in January that the future president met with Ye Jianming, chairman of the China Energy Company Limited (CEFC), in 2017. The Epoch Times’ Tom Ozimek has more.
Secretary of State races this year are getting more politicized. In an interview with The Epoch Times, New Hampshire’s former secretary of state, Democrat Bill Gardner, traced it back to 2006 and the liberal Secretary of State Project, founded by George Soros. More recently, the contested 2020 presidential election made voters, and donors, more aware of just how crucial secretaries of state can be.
The Epoch Times’ John Haughey goes into detail on key secretary of state races this election season. Don’t overlook the contests in West Virginia, North Carolina, Montana, and other states, including Missouri, where a GOP “civil war” is brewing, and Oregon, where Democrats are poised to fight over a seat vacated by Shemia Fagan, who resigned when an investigation revealed she was also working for a cannabis company under her regulatory authority.
