House Republicans embarrassed themselves with their failure to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and they have no one to blame but themselves.
House Republicans have sabotaged themselves at every turn, directly or indirectly, leading to the caucus rolling into this vote with a razor-thin majority. The spite-fueled decision to remove former California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker, driven by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), persuaded McCarthy to resign from the chamber entirely. Gaetz sees no problem with this, though, apparently thinking that working with Democrats to oust a Republican is something Republicans should just accept for the good of the team, which Gaetz himself doesn’t believe in.
The House GOP can also blame its margin on everything to do with former New York Republican Rep. George Santos. That includes the clear lack of vetting of Santos before he was propped up as a candidate and the decision to expel him, which was rushed by GOP leadership to try and cleanse itself of a mistake it brought on itself by backing him in the first place. Add in the bizarre decision not to wait for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) to be present for the vote, and you trimmed off three likely “yes” votes of a majority that has almost no margin for error.
On top of it all, the House GOP’s weak margins in the 2022 midterm elections stem from the toxic political brand of former President Donald Trump. Of course, that is who the House GOP is backing again in 2024. Some lessons are never learned.
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Compare this to the Democratic House caucus, which wheeled in Rep. Al Green (D-TX) in a wheelchair and hospital clothes to vote down the impeachment. The House Democratic caucus is a well-oiled machine that moves in lockstep to beat Republicans, while the House GOP goes to war more with itself than with Democrats so Gaetz can settle personal vendettas or Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) can have a fundraising email about fighting the “establishment.”
This kind of failure would not happen in the House Democratic caucus, but the House GOP makes these failures a regular feature. So long as Republicans let personal feuds and toxic politicians dictate their direction in the House, Democrats will continue to make a mockery of them at every turn.
