Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she “absolutely” deserves credit for House Republicans moving forward with impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week, citing the two times she moved to force votes on booting the embattled cabinet head last year.
In a phone interview with The Hill on Monday — one day before the House Homeland Security Committee is set to mark up articles of impeachment against Mayorkas — the Georgia Republican argued that her pair of procedural gambits in November were the impetus for for this week’s panel vote.
“Absolutely this is happening because I forced that floor vote,” Greene said.
The congresswoman claimed that Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, has given her credit for setting the process in motion in their panel.
She noted that while the Judiciary Committee typically handles impeachment proceedings, the Homeland Security Committee has jurisdiction over Mayorkas’s impeachment because the House voted to refer Greene’s articles to that panel when she moved to force votes on the matter last year.
“Chairman Green and my committee have given me credit for our committee’s ability to be able to mark up articles of impeachment and make that vote tomorrow. Because Homeland Committee would never have the jurisdiction to do that. Articles of Impeachment are usually marked up, I think, they’re always marked up in Judiciary Committee, and historically that’s been the case,” Greene said.
“But because I forced that floor vote back in November, and told them I was going to do it over and over again until this was taken seriously, we’re finally having a vote on impeachment out of Homeland tomorrow, which is where the my articles of impeachment got referred after that first vote, and they wouldn’t be there,” she continued.
The victory lap from Greene comes as the Homeland Security Committee readies for Tuesday’s markup of two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.
Republicans on the panel are accusing him of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law,” pointing to claims that the secretary violated immigration laws through Biden administration policies, in addition to “breach of trust,” which is based on allegations that he did not carry out his responsibilities, misled Congress and obstructed its investigation.
The Department of Homeland Security in a recent memo said Tuesday’s markup of the impeachment resolution “is just more of the same political games from House Homeland Security Committee (CHS) Republicans.”
The full House will hold a vote on the articles if they advance out of committee Tuesday, which could mark the second time in history that a cabinet secretary has been impeached. The first was Secretary of War William Belknap, who was impeached in 1876 and then acquitted by the Senate. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he will bring the articles to the floor “as soon as possible.”
Republicans for months have called for Mayorkas to be impeached, sounding the alarm about the situation at the southern border. Greene put a spotlight on that push in November, when she moved to force two votes on booting the cabinet secretary.
The first time, the House voted to refer Greene’s articles of impeachment to the Homeland Security Committee. The second time, the Georgia Republican scrapped her effort before the vote took place after receiving assurances from Johnson and Green that the House would move forward with proceedings against Mayorkas.
“I told them I’ll do this every single week,” Greene told The Hill on Monday, referring to her vow last year to force more votes on booting Mayorkas. “And then that’s when Speaker Johnson asked me, or he promised me that these articles of impeachment, we would do it, and Chairman Green on Homeland Committee promised me that we would do it, and I said okay, then I’ll stop introducing them in privileged resolutions.”
“And they followed through, and here’s the results of it, it’s actually happening this week,” she added.
Greene taking credit for the impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas plays into an argument Democrats have made about the effort to boot the cabinet secretary: that the push is spearheaded by hardline Republicans.
“The rest of the story of this impeachment plays out like a MAGA soap opera,” Homeland Security Democrats wrote in a report released Monday, referencing Greene’s moves to force votes on articles of impeachment.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee railed against the effort during a press conference on Monday. Alongside them at the event was a large photo of Greene and Johnson taking a selfie.
“This is a political stunt and a hit job ordered by two people: Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Jeffries said.
“As Democrats on the committee we feel clearly that it’s not in the best interest of this government to have this impeachment. That it’s a deal put together to satisfy some of the most extreme elements in the Republican Party. If you remember, Marjorie Taylor Greene offered this impeachment resolution to the House and it was withdrawn with the notion that we will bring it up at a later date,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (Miss.), the top Democrat on the panel.
Rebecca Beitsch contributed.
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