It’s no secret that U.S. border officials and agents have been openly hostile toward changes implemented under the Biden administration, and openly hostile toward the administration itself. The Border Patrol’s union, after all, twice endorsed the insurrectionist president. It had previously never made a presidential endorsement before. When border officials want an alarmist talking points printed verbatim, they know exactly which right-wing stenographers to go to. In November, Customs and Border Protection’s commissioner was forced out. He’d attempted numerous reforms, faced internal blowback, and paid for it with his job.
That hostility may now become a tool in the House GOP’s impeachment efforts against Department of Homeland Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas. House Oversight chair James Comer has invited four border officials to testify in a hearing set for the week of Feb. 6. We know Comer is a very serious person, stomping his loafers when reporters asked questions of substance instead of questions about Hunter Biden.
RELATED STORY: House Republican files impeachment resolution against Mayorkas, and it's as silly as you think
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CNN reports these House hearings “could serve as a prelude to an impeachment inquiry against Mayorkas,” a threat that Republicans had used as a campaigning tool leading up to the midterms. Now they have to come up with the reasoning, and what Texas Republican Pat Fallon outlined in his impeachment articles is tomfoolery. In just one example, Fallon cites the Biden administration’s termination of the Remain in Mexico program, an anti-asylum policy that the right-wing Supreme Court already said the administration was within its authority to end.
Only one Cabinet member throughout our nation’s entire history has ever been impeached by the U.S. House, and that was nearly 150 years ago. Secretary of War William Belknap would later be acquitted by the U.S. Senate.
CNN says that while House Republicans like Comer are eager to continue with the impeachment effort against Mayorkas, a handful of House Republicans look like they’re in opposition or are iffy about the whole thing—and McCarthy can’t afford a handful with his slim majority. The report said Texas’ Tony Gonzales has “signaled he is opposed to the effort right now.” Florida’s Mario Díaz-Balart, meanwhile, is on Team Iffy.
“Has he been totally dishonest to people? Yes. Has he failed in his job miserably? Yes,” he told CNN, listing off required GOP grievances before getting to the meat of things. “Are those grounds for impeachment? I don’t know.” Nebraska’s Don Bacon also seems unsure, saying he doesn’t “think independent, swing voters are interested in impeachments.”
Even if McCarthy cobbles together the votes, Mayorkas would likely face the same fate as Belknap in the Senate. But while the impeachment articles are a theatrical absurdity, America’s Voice political director Zachary Mueller laid out a compelling case about its also a dangerous effort. He says House Republicans will use their performances to continue pushing white supremacist “invasion” lies and other conspiracy theories at a time when Mayorkas’ department has warned of domestic terror threats stemming from lies pushed by Republicans themselves.
It was just this past New Year’s Eve that a nativist gunman calling himself “eyes for America” pointed his weapon at migrants who were gathered outside an El Paso church. He now faces several serious charges. The violent incident outside Sacred Heart Church came just days after DHS warned of potential extremist violence over the administration’s now-delayed lifting of the anti-asylum Title 42 public health policy.
“To put it plainly, at a time when violent white nationalists motivated by false conspiracy theories pose the greatest threat of terrorism to the United States, Republicans are targeting one of the government officials most directly responsible for keeping the nation safe from domestic terrorism, motivated largely by the same white nationalist falsehoods,” Mueller wrote. Let’s not pretend that Republicans are remotely concerned about governing or oversight. They want payback, they want chaos, they want political fodder. Maybe they’re also afraid that continued DHS probing into right-wing extremism could uncover some ties back to them?
“The tragic irony here should expose the real danger: many of the same Republicans who led and supported the January 6th insurrection are leading the impeachment fiasco,” he continued in a statement from America’s Voice. “The same radical ideas, radical actions, and radical extremists are exactly the threat that the DHS secretary has identified as the leading terrorism risk currently facing the nation.”
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Election season is already here, and it's already off to an amazing start with Democrats' huge flip of a critical seat in the Virginia state Senate, which kicks off this week's episode of The Downballot. Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard dissect what Aaron Rouse's victory means for November (abortion is still issue #1!) when every seat in the legislature will be on the ballot. They also discuss big goings-on in two U.S. Senate races: California, where Rep. Katie Porter just became the first Democrat to kick off a bid despite Sen. Dianne Feinstein's lack of a decision about her own future, and Michigan, which just saw veteran Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow announce her retirement.
