A Democrat wearing hospital scrubs in a wheelchair delivered the decisive blow to Republicans Tuesday night in their humiliating, failed bid to oust Alejandro Mayorkas.
Al Green of Texas was in the hospital recovering from abdominal surgery when the House of Representatives scheduled a vote on allegations that the Secretary of Homeland Security had broken the law with his border policies.
As the time limit for the vote counted down to zero, Green stunned his colleagues when he was wheeled onto the floor from his hospital bed wearing the tan socks.
He voted No to leave the outcome at a dramatic 215-215 tie and hand Speaker Mike Johnson a stunning defeat on a farcical night for the Republican Party in the House of Representatives.
When Green learned the vote was taking place on Tuesday, four days after he went under the knife, he asked his doctors if he could leave.
He then called Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to tell him he was taking an Uber to Capitol Hill.
Democratic Rep. Al Green wore hospital scrubs in a wheelchair as he delivered the decisive blow to Republicans Tuesday night in their humiliating failed bid to oust Alejandro Mayorkas.
Republicans in the House of Representatives have not passed a resolution to impeach Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas in the third major legislative failure of the day in Congress
Jeffries said he didn’t have to vote but arranged transportation for him anyway, The New York Times reported.
Green made the trip, had his blood pressure and temperature taken by the attending physician at the Capitol, then dramatically inflicted the fatal wound on Republicans as the votes dwindled.
“I was determined to vote long in advance – I had no idea how close it would be,” Green told The Times from his hospital bed after the vote.
‘I didn’t assume my vote would make a difference. I came because it was personal.”
He believed his vote was crucial because Mayorkas is a “decent man” whose reputation is being “smeared.”
The 214-216 vote was the second of three major legislative failures of the day for House Republicans, who remain deeply divided in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Immediately after Mayorkas’ embarrassing vote, Speaker Mike Johnson’s standalone $17.6 billion bill failed spectacularly by a vote of 250 to 218, another humiliating defeat for Republicans in the space of 15 minutes.
And earlier today, the Senate Republicans summarily killed the $118 billion bipartisan border and security deal they spent months negotiating — releasing it just two days ago.
Impeaching Mayorkas was intended as a rare act of unity for Republicans in the House of Representatives, who are deeply divided on other issues. But GOP leaders were stunned by the results.
“I really haven’t had time to think about it yet,” Supervisory Board Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told reporters when asked for his reaction after the failed vote. Comer is leading Biden’s slower-moving impeachment inquiry.
The Republican Party’s impeachment bid was hanging by a thread, as Chairman Mike Johnson could afford to lose only three votes in total.
Republicans had brought back Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., who was recovering from a car accident but walked onto the House floor with a full chest and neck brace to cast a “yes” vote in the failed impeachment attempt.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declared the $118 billion border bill dead
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the $118 billion Senate border package is “dead on arrival” as he announced this weekend that the House will bring to the floor a “clean, standalone” $17 billion Israeli aid bill – which failed on Tuesday.
There were a series of boos and chants in the House chamber as lawmakers waited for several minutes for the one outstanding vote that could break the knot: Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., who is currently seeking treatment for cancer.
The vote remained silent for several minutes before Republican Conference Vice Chairman Blake Moore changed his initial “yes” on impeachment to “no” to bring the total to 216 so he could raise the measure again in the future.
Reps. Ken Buck, R-Colo., Tom McClintock, R-Calif., and Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., all opposed impeaching Mayorkas, claiming it was unconstitutional and citing problems with the procedure.
Johnson spokesman Raj Shah said Republicans “fully intend to bring up the articles of impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas again when we have the votes to approve them.”
“It’s a delay, that’s all this is,” Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., said of the vote, emphasizing that it would take place again when Scalise was back in Washington.
The embarrassing blow to Chairman Mike Johnson now sends the GOP back to the drawing board. It is unlikely that Congress will make any changes to border policy before the next presidency.
Ousted Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., rejoiced after the vote was final. “Miss me already?” he wrote on X.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said Republicans will have to ask themselves whether “ousting George Santos was actually worth it.”
Republicans voted to remove the fabulous liar Santos from Congress in January, but with his help today the GOP could have brought the vote across the finish line.
The Department of Homeland Security and Democrats labeled the Republican Party-led effort a “political stunt” aimed at a man “doing his best under extreme circumstances.”
Earlier Tuesday, the White House accused Homeland Chairman Green of being anti-Semitic for calling Cuban Jew Alejandro Mayorkas a “reptile” who doesn’t have the “b****” to resign.
Mayorkas’ ouster comes amid rampant unrest among House Republicans who cannot agree on spending and the $118 billion supplemental funding deal. Last year they even voted to oust their previous chairman, Kevin McCarthy.
According to official figures from the Department of Homeland Security, more than 302,000 encounters with migrants took place at the southern border in December – a record.
And while Republicans led the charge against the Senate’s bipartisan border and national security deal, Democrats rejected Israeli aid and demanded the Senate deal instead.
Republicans were the ones who demanded that any legislation that would fund Ukraine and Israel must provide them with border facilities. But as soon as Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced that the deal was dead, Senate Republicans again started floating the idea of an aid package for Ukraine and Israel without any border legislation.
The farcical development came less than an hour after President Joe Biden blamed Donald Trump for leading the effort to undermine the law to help improve his chances in the 2024 election.
The bill — which includes $20 billion for border measures — would mandate closing the border if there are 5,000 encounters over the course of a week or 8,500 migrants in one day.
But many Republicans said it didn’t go far enough, demanding the immediate reinstatement of pandemic-era Title 42, “Remain in Mexico” policies and border wall construction.
“They sent us a supplemental funding proposal that includes immigration reform but no real border security reform,” Chairman Mike Johnson complained about the deal.