Surprise Appearance by Member Dooms Mayorkas Impeachment Vote

The embattled Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, survived impeachment thanks to a Democratic congressman who unexpectedly came to the floor straight from his hospital bed to vote against the measure. 

According to a Democratic member of Congress who spoke with the Sun and was granted anonymity to describe events, Congressman Al Green — a 76-year-old Democrat from Texas — arrived on the House floor at the last minute in a wheelchair. He was wearing a pair of pants, a hospital gown, and no shoes. 

Mr. Green’s surprise tied the impeachment vote, denying Republicans their long-sought win to make Mr. Mayorkas the first cabinet member to be impeached in almost 150 years.

“I don’t know what his ailment is, but he made it,” the Democratic member said enthusiastically. The member also said that the Democratic leader in the House, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, was aware that Mr. Green would make a surprise appearance, but kept it a secret from Speaker Johnson who thought the impeachment measure would pass.

The Republican author of the impeachment articles, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, said that Democrats “hid one of their members, trying to throw us off on the numbers.”

For several minutes on the House floor, the impeachment vote was tied: 215 in favor, 215 against. Three Republican congressmen —  Mike Gallagher, Ken Buck, and Tom McClintock — all voted against the measure because, they said, impeaching a cabinet secretary for policy disagreements did not represent a “high crime or misdemeanor.”

The rest of the Republican conference, however, felt that Mr. Mayorkas was guilty of gross dereliction of duty, and mendacity, regarding his stewardship of the Southern border, which has devolved into chaos on his watch.

Before Mr. Green’s surprise appearance, Republicans expected the impeachment vote to squeak by. With four vacancies in the House and the Republican majority leader, Congressman Steve Scalise, out of town for cancer treatments, Republicans would have been able to pass the impeachment articles even with the three defections. Unfortunately, they had also counted on the absence of Mr. Green due to his hospitalization. 

As the vote stood at 215—215 for nearly ten minutes, the chairman of the Budget Committee, Congressman Jodey Arrington, could be seen at the back of the House chamber berating Mr. Gallagher, seemingly trying to get him to change his vote. Mr. Gallagher did not relent. 

When it became clear that the articles of impeachment would fail on the House floor, the vice chairman of the Republican conference, Congressman Blake Moore, changed his vote from “yay” to “nay” because votes that fail in a tie cannot be brought back to the House floor for consideration. 

Mr. Johnson’s spokesman said in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that “House Republicans fully intend to bring Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas back to the floor when we have the votes for passage.”

Shortly after the House failed to impeach Mr. Mayorkas, Republicans suffered another defeat as a majority of Democratic members and a handful of their own Republicans voted down an $18 billion aid package for Israel only, that lacked other more controversial funding provisions for Ukraine.