President Biden on Tuesday slammed Republicans who voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, arguing that history will not look kindly on those lawmakers.
After a failed first effort to impeach Mayorkas, House Republicans eked out a narrow 214-213 vote to impeach the first Cabinet official since the 1870s.
“History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games,” Biden said in a statement after the vote.
The White House argued before the vote that the impeachment effort against Mayorkas was unconstitutional and politically motivated. Biden on Tuesday noted that Mayorkas is a Cuban immigrant who came to the U.S. as a political refugee with his family and has spent more than two decades in public service.
He also said that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) rejected the legislation a group of senators unveiled last week that included measures to tighten security at the border, as well as aid to Ukraine and Israel. The Speaker called it insufficient and dead on arrival in the House. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have indicated Johnson killed the bill to allow former President Trump, the GOP front-runner, to run on the border as a political issue against Biden.
“Instead of staging political stunts like this, Republicans with genuine concerns about the border should want Congress to deliver more border resources and stronger border security,” Biden said. “Sadly, the same Republicans pushing this baseless impeachment are rejecting bipartisan plans Secretary Mayorkas and others in my administration have worked hard on to strengthen border security at this very moment — reversing from years of their own demands to pass stronger border bills.”
Biden said that Congress has to give his administration the tools to address the situation at the U.S. southern border and that the House GOP has to “decide whether to join us to solve the problem or keep playing politics with the border.”
Biden also reiterated his calls to House Republicans to pass the Senate’s bipartisan funding measure to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and other allies. The measure passed the Senate with 70 votes on Tuesday, but Johnson says it lacks the tougher border security measures House Republicans have demanded.