House GOP fails to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas

Rep. Steve Womack

House Republicans were exasperated after the stunning defeat of their resolution to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, lobbing some criticism at their own leadership over the fiasco even as they plan to bring the vote back up again when they have better attendance.

GOP Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas said it was unwise of leadership to put the bill on the floor not knowing for sure whether it would pass, adding to the perception that House Republicans can’t govern.

“It’s hard to sit there and see it, you know, I mean, it’s tough. We’re in a difficult spot right now,” he said. “If we whipped, we need a better whip. I’m not talking about the person in the job. I’m just saying the whip count. We need to know exactly where we are and we need to be careful not to get out ahead of our skis and put something on the floor that we don’t have certainty on.”

Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina also criticized GOP leadership’s strategy on the Mayorkas vote.

“I would have thought they would have known that. I would have thought that would have been basic,” Norman said of the whip count. “They’re good on the other side of knowing that. Is it that hard?”

“But it did happen, it went down, and we live to fight another day,” he said.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene disputed that it was a miscalculation to put the bill on the floor, telling CNN, “I don’t think it’s a failure at all,” and warning that the Republicans who voted to sink the impeachment articles would be hearing from voters.

“I’m sure they’ll hear from their constituents. I’m sure they’re probably hearing from them already, but I think they should listen to them,” the Georgia Republican said.

“I look forward to having Steve Scalise back. Of course, been praying for him this whole time to beat cancer,” she added, referring to the House majority leader who was absent from the vote as he recovers in Louisiana from a stem cell transplant. 

The White House is calling Tuesday night’s failed vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas a “baseless, unconstitutional impeachment stunt.”

“Clearly there is bipartisan agreement that this baseless, unconstitutional impeachment stunt should fail,” White House spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement Tuesday evening. 

Sams also called the impeachment vote a “waste of time.”

“House Republicans ought to realize that extreme political stunts like this are a waste of time, and instead join the President, Secretary Mayorkas, and Republicans and Democrats who want to work together to deliver real solutions that actually strengthen border security,” Sams added. 

The surprise maneuver by House Democrats that sunk the Alejandro Mayorkas impeachment vote came at the last minute.

Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas, who has been absent recovering from surgery, was expected to miss the vote, which would have given House Republicans the margins they needed to impeach the Homeland Security secretary.

But, sources said, Green was wheeled onto the House floor at the last minute with no shoes, to vote against impeaching Mayorkas and deliver a stunning defeat to Republicans.

Leading up to the vote, Republicans believed that Green’s absence would give them the cushion they needed if a few GOP lawmakers defected and felt confident they would be able to squeak the vote through up until the last minute.

Up until Green’s vote changed the margins and tipped the vote over the edge against Republicans, the plan to bring him back was in flux, a source familiar with the plans told CNN.

Even Republicans acknowledged that Democrats’ decision to wait to reveal Green’s presence was well-played.

“I like a good game. They played a good game. I don’t like that we lost” GOP Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona told CNN.

Green’s return may have caught Republicans by surprise – but Democratic leaders said they were ready for it.

“It was not a surprise,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark told CNN of Green’s return.

Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi said Green “had been out, but he saw the importance of coming and he did.”

Green was not the only lawmaker rushing back to the Capitol for the crucial vote.

Rep. Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican who has been recovering from a car accident, appeared on the House floor in a large neck brace, and GOP Rep. Nick Langworthy of New York returned just in time to vote after leaving the Capitol for an emergency. 

 “It was all hands on deck,” Thompson reflected.

After facing a stunning defeat on the House floor, GOP leadership is signaling they will try again to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas once they have the votes secured. 

“House Republicans fully intend to bring Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas back to the floor when we have the votes for passage,” Raj Shah, a spokesperson for House Speaker Mike Johnson, posted on X.  

Despite rumors swirling that House Majority Leader Steve Scalise – who would be a key vote – could be back tomorrow, his office denies that. 

The vote could potentially be brought up as soon as next week. 

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement Tuesday saying Republicans should abandon “political games” following the failed effort to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday.

“This baseless impeachment should never have moved forward; it faces bipartisan opposition and legal experts resoundingly say it is unconstitutional,” DHS spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement.

Some context: Legal experts, including Alan Dershowitz, who represented former President Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial, have said Republicans lack evidence to impeach Mayorkas. Former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, who served under Republican President George W. Bush, constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley, who has been called by Republicans to serve as a witness in hearings, and 25 law professors have all written about why Republicans have not presented evidence against Mayorkas that rises to the level of impeachment.

Rep. Ken Buck.

Republican Rep. Ken Buck said the “principle is very clear” for why he joined Democrats in voting against the resolution to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas: The secretary did not commit a high crime or misdemeanor.

But, the Colorado lawmaker said the resolution is likely to pass at some point when House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is back on the Hill. He was not present for the vote on Tuesday because he is still recovering in Louisiana from a stem cell transplant.

Republicans could only lose three votes in their razor-thin majority if all lawmakers are present. With Buck, Republican Reps. Mike Gallagher and Tom McClintock also voted against the resolution.

Buck said he is disappointed that there is still a way forward “because we are setting new levels — low levels for these impeachments,” Buck said.

“It is not the way we should be going when we need to solve the difficult problems that we have in this country,” he added.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green attends a Rules Committee hearing at the US Capitol on February 5, in Washington, DC.

Homeland Security Chair Mark Green said he is “frustrated” that House Republicans failed to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, but said Republicans will vote again when Majority Leader Steve Scalise is back and pass it.

“I’m frustrated,” the Tennessee Republican told CNN. “But we will bring it back up, obviously when Scalise and others are here and it will pass. It’s a delay is all this is.”

Scalise was absent from the vote as he recovers in Louisiana from a stem cell transplant. 

Green presides over the Homeland Security Committee that sent the impeachment articles against Mayorkas to the House floor. He had personally met with some of the GOP holdouts on the impeachment, such as Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, and issued a number of memos on Mayorkas in recent weeks, GOP sources previously told CNN.

Rep. Ken Buck speaks to members of the media after a meeting at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. 

Three Republicans — Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher and California Rep. Tom McClintock — joined the Democrats in voting against the resolution to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

GOP Rep. Blake Moore joined the no side to allow House Republicans to bring up the vote again.

The House GOP also has three vacancies after the departures of Kevin McCarthy and Bill Johnson, and the expulsion of George Santos.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was not present for the vote, as he is still recovering in Louisiana from a stem cell transplant. 

The House’s failure to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is a “massive defeat for the leadership of the GOP,” former Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.” 

House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN earlier Tuesday that he believed House Republicans had enough votes to impeach, but several Republican lawmakers voted against the resolution. 

Tuesday’s failed vote also casts doubt on whether a potential effort to impeach President Joe Biden will succeed, Kinzinger, a CNN senior political commentator, argued.  

“If they cannot pass the impeachment of this Cabinet member, they’re going to have a hard time getting through the impeachment of Joe Biden,” he said. 

If the effort had been successful, Mayorkas would have been the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years.

The House, with the slimmest margin of 214-216, failed to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. It’s a colossal embarrassment for Republican leaders, who pushed the issue for political reasons despite legal scholars disputing the GOP case.

The vote comes after a spate of vacancies largely on the Republican side that made the margins for House Speaker Mike Johnson incredibly tight. 

Three Republicans, Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher, and California Rep. Tom McClintock, joined the Democrats in voting against the resolution. GOP Rep. Blake Moore of Utah joined the no side to allow the House GOP to bring up the vote again.

House Republicans also have three vacancies after the departures of Kevin McCarthy and Bill Johnson, and the expulsion of George Santos.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was not present for the vote, as he is still recovering in Louisiana from a stem cell transplant. 

Here is a breakdown of the vote:

 Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on November 15, 2023 in Washington, DC.

The GOP-led House is voting now on whether to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Republicans can only lose three votes in their razor-thin majority if all lawmakers are present, and a handful of lawmakers have not indicated how they plan to vote.

House Republicans claim Mayorkas has committed high crimes and misdemeanors for his handling of the southern border, even though several constitutional experts have said the evidence does not reach that high bar.

Only one Cabinet official has previously been impeached in American history: Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876.

Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas takes his seat to testify before a Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on the department's budget request on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, in 2021.

If House Republicans can muster the simple majority of votes they need to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, it will be an unprecedented moment in US history.

While there was one previous Cabinet official to be impeached by the House, the circumstances of that scandal, featuring Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876, are so different as to defy comparison, except in one way: Belknap was acquitted by the Senate as Mayorkas almost certainly would be.

The most important difference between Belknap and Mayorkas is the purpose of their respective impeachment cases.

As everyone should remember from the two impeachments and Senate acquittals of former President Donald Trump, the Constitution’s impeachment clause allows for the removal of a federal official from office and bars that individual from office in the future for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Belknap served during the so-called Gilded Age of US politics, and his crime was the corrupt financing of an extravagant lifestyle in the nation’s capital. He took kickbacks from a person he appointed to lead a trading post in Oklahoma.

The articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, on the other hand, outline policy differences rather than corruption, bribery or another crime. Republicans disagree with the administration’s approach at the border and argue that Mayorkas is not enforcing the laws.

Read more about what could be a historic vote.

The House is set to vote soon on whether to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, where lawmakers could take the rare step of impeaching a Cabinet official for the first time in nearly 150 years. Only one Cabinet official has previously been impeached in American history: Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876.

Here are key things to know about the upcoming vote:

What Republicans are saying: House Republicans claim Mayorkas has committed high crimes and misdemeanors for his handling of the southern border, even though several constitutional experts have said the evidence does not reach that high bar. The impeachment effort comes as House Republicans have faced building pressure from their base to hold the Biden administration accountable on a key campaign issue: the border.

Tight margin: But Republicans can only lose three votes in their razor-thin majority if all lawmakers are present, and a handful of lawmakers have not indicated how they plan to vote. GOP Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado announced in an op-ed that he would not vote to impeach Mayorkas. GOP Rep. Tom McClintock of California wrote on X on Tuesday he also will vote against impeaching the DHS secretary. House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green of Tennessee, who has led the impeachment effort, has been meeting with some of the remaining GOP holdouts in the lead up to the vote, according to GOP sources.

What happens after the vote: Even if Mayorkas is impeached in the House, it is highly unlikely that he will be charged in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Senate Democrats are still weighing how to respond if Mayorkas is impeached: Move ahead with a trial, or move to dismiss it quickly given their view that it’s blatantly political.

What Mayorkas is saying: Mayorkas – whom the department said is meeting with staff in Mountain View, California, on Tuesday, to discuss cybersecurity and artificial intelligence – sent a letter to House Republicans to defend his record in public service. “My reverence for law enforcement was instilled in me by my parents, who brought me to this country to escape the Communist takeover of Cuba and allow me the freedoms and opportunity that our democracy provides,” Mayorkas said. The Department of Homeland Security has also blasted House Republicans over its upcoming committee vote, calling it a “farce” and “distraction from other vital national security priorities.”

The Senate is considering a border deal: While Republicans in the House argue that the remedy for fixing the crisis at the southern border is to impeach Mayorkas and pressure President Joe Biden to take more executive action, their counterparts in the Senate have worked with their Democratic colleagues to unveil a border deal that would make long-anticipated changes to immigration law. But House Speaker Mike Johnson declared the Senate deal “dead on arrival” in the House after the text was released Sunday evening.

Read more about the upcoming vote here.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign on Tuesday bashed President Joe Biden’s remarks from the White House earlier in the day that urged Congress to pass the Senate’s bipartisan border deal as Trump continued trying to sink the bill. 

“Crooked Joe Biden’s speech on the ‘border’ bill was an embarrassment to our Nation and a slap in the face to the American people. Biden did not take responsibility for the mass invasion of nearly 10 million illegal immigrants who have illegally crossed our border on his watch, nor did he offer any real solutions to stop the flow of Chinese fentanyl that is killing Americans at record-rates,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. 

Biden on Tuesday explicitly cast blame on Trump for derailing the painstakingly negotiated border and national security package, which is expected to fail in the Senate, saying in part that Trump is blocking the bill for the sole reason that it would give him a political win. Biden also warned that he and his allies will blame Trump and Republicans “every day” should the bill fail.

Leavitt added, “Predictably, Crooked Joe Biden blamed President Trump for the border crisis that Biden himself created. This is a brazen, pathetic lie and the American people know the truth – President Trump’s policies created the most secure border in American history, and it was Joe Biden who reversed them, causing death, destruction, and chaos in every American community. America does not need a ‘border’ bill that does nothing to deter illegal immigration. We need a President who will use his executive authority to shut the border down. Joe Biden clearly refuses to do that, but President Trump will get it done on day one.” 

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema speaks to reporters at the Capitol on February 5, in Washington, DC. 

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, one of the key Senate negotiators on the immigration and foreign aid package, said on Tuesday she is “disappointed” that her colleagues have rejected the legislation for political reasons.

“It appears that politics have overtaken practical policy once again in Washington, DC,” the independent from Arizona told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead.”

The $118 billion bipartisan border deal and foreign aid package is set for a key vote in the Senate on Wednesday but the bill is on track to fail as GOP infighting threatens to steamroll any congressional response to the border as well as jeopardize aid to Ukraine and Israel. 

“For the last four and a half months I brought Republicans and Democrats together to form a real solution to address our border crisis, and unfortunately today, my colleagues in the United States Senate have decided that they don’t actually want the solution and don’t want to secure the border. And I’m disappointed – but I’m mostly disappointed, Jake, for the folks back home, because my state is still in crisis and will be tomorrow and the next day and the next day,” she continued.

Sinema refused to place blame specifically at the feet of former President Donald Trump, who has sought to tank the deal in recent days, arguing that “each senator has to take responsibility for his or her own decisions.” But she argued that members were rejecting the bill due to politics, rather than the package’s provisions.  

She confirmed the Senate will take a procedural vote on the package, and noted that she told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that they should give Republicans another day to read the package: “He agreed, but unfortunately today Senate Republicans indicated that a delay isn’t needed, that they don’t want to move forward on this bill.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday that President Joe Biden and House Speaker Mike Johnson aren’t going to be getting together to talk about the border deal any time soon.

When Jean-Pierre was questioned about Johnson’s role in the border bill negotiations, she said there was no need to engage in further negotiation with the speaker.

When asked whether Biden would invite Johnson over to the White House to hash out a deal, Jean-Pierre said, “Hash out what? The agreement is in front of them.”

Johnson came out in open opposition to the bill, essentially dooming the bipartisan border deal reached among senators that would have ramped up border security while also sending funding to Ukraine and Israel.

“They’re putting politics ahead of getting things done for the American people,” Jean-Pierre said. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks at a news conference at the US Capitol on February 6, in Washington, DC. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and top Senate Democrats on Tuesday expressed intense anger at Republicans for abandoning the bipartisan border deal after demanding that border security be packaged together with Ukraine aid, accusing them of bowing to pressure from Donald Trump.

The New York Democrat accused GOP leader Mitch McConnell and the GOP conference of “a 180-degree reversal” and of “quaking at the knees at the fear of Donald Trump.”

“In our caucus room today, there was a lot of anger, frustration, deep disappointment in our Republican colleagues,” he added.

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the top Democratic negotiator for the deal, blasted Republicans. “I know that it’s easy to lose your sense of outrage about politics,” he said, “but what has happened here over the last four months is outrageous,” adding that Republicans ”now oppose the very bill that they begged us to craft.” 

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, spoke about deaths from fentanyl overdoses in her state, saying, “anything that we can do to cut down on the amount of fentanyl that’s coming into the United States we ought to be doing, by God. If they’re not willing to do that, then shame on them.”

Asked whether the Senate would drop the border provisions and move to pass a package with only the foreign aid if Wednesday’s vote on the package fails as is expected, Schumer said, “Stay tuned.”

Asked if he has a plan for what will happen in the Senate if DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is impeached by the Republican-led House on Tuesday night, Schumer would not specify or say if he would move to dismiss.

“Let’s see what the House first does,” he said.

The Biden campaign is seizing on former President Donald Trump’s push to sink the border bill package introduced by the Senate earlier this week, listing the instances when Trump called for immigration reform.

“Donald Trump has directed MAGA Republicans to kill the toughest and fairest reforms to secure the border in decades because he thinks it will help him politically,” the Biden campaign said in an email blast. 

The email came moments after President Joe Biden said Democrats will remind voters “every day between now and November” that “the only reason the border is not secure is Trump” in a White House speech, previewing how he will use the issue to run against the likely GOP presidential candidate Trump in the general election.

“This bill has picked up support across the political spectrum - including Trump’s allies like the Border Patrol Union, who endorsed Trump’s campaign for president twice – and the Chamber of Commerce,” the email continued.  

Trump’s attacks on the bill – and those from House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has said the bill would be “dead on arrival” in the House – have made the bill’s failure all but inevitable. Biden has said that Trump is blocking the bill for the sole reason that it would give him a political win. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks to reporters at the US Capitol on Tuesday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that the immigration and foreign aid package “will not become law,” due to the Speaker Mike Johnson’s opposition and concerns within the Senate GOP conference.

“We had a very robust discussion about whether or not this product could ever become law, and it’s been made pretty clear to us by the speaker that it will not become law,” he said. 

“So I want to congratulate Sen. (James) Lankford on a remarkable job of negotiating with the other side, getting the support of the border council, but it looks to me and to most of our members is that we have no real chance here to make a law,” McConnell continued.

McConnell argued that the Senate needs to change course on the national security package and focus on providing foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

“There are other parts of this supplemental that are extremely important as well: Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan. We still, in my view, ought to tackle the rest of it, because it’s important. Not that the border isn’t important, but we can’t get an outcome,” McConnell told CNN’s Manu Raju. “So that’s where I think we ought to head, and it’s up to Sen. Schumer to decide how to repackage this if in fact we don’t go on to it.”

The Republican leader also defended his handling of the negotiations, saying that he accomplished what members of his conference wanted by proposing serious changes to immigration law, tied to foreign aid.

“I followed the instructions of my conference who were insisting that we tackle this in October. I mean, it’s actually our side that wanted to tackle the border issue. We started it,” he said. “Obviously, with a Democratic President and a Democratic Senate, our negotiators had to deal with them, and James Lankford, under those situations, did a remarkable job.”

Pressed on whether Trump’s opposition is to blame for killing the package, McConnell refused to engage.

“I’ve said repeatedly every month, I’m not going to get into comments about the race for the presidency among Republicans,” he said.

Migrants in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, walk next to the US-Mexico border wall on Thursday.

Just about everyone agrees that whatever US immigration system is supposed to exist at the southern border — and beyond it — is badly broken.

The number of unauthorized immigrants crossing the border keeps reaching record highs. The backlog of cases in US immigration courts has soared past 3 million. People trying to immigrate legally to the US face a maze of bureaucracy and lengthy delays.

A group of bipartisan senators and White House officials say they’ve negotiated a deal that would solve some of these problems. If passed, the measures would amount to some of the most significant changes in US immigration policy in decades.

That’s certainly a big if. While President Joe Biden has said he’ll sign the legislation, former President Donald Trump is pushing GOP lawmakers not to pass it. And House Republican leaders have called it “dead on arrival” even if it clears the Senate.

Still, this is a moment when it’s important to pay attention.

At a time when problems at the border often grab headlines, this deal — released Sunday evening after months of negotiations — offers a rare list of proposed solutions with a bipartisan bent, including:

Read more about what is, and isn’t, in the deal here.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is forging ahead with the impeachment vote of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday even in the face of holdouts and absences. 

“The vote will happen tonight,” he told CNN as he walked onto the House floor. 

Senior House Republicans are growing increasingly worried that their Mayorkas resolution could fail as eleventh hour absences and defections crop up, setting the stage for a nail-biter vote Tuesday evening.

But Republicans can only lose three votes in their razor-thin majority if all lawmakers are present, and a handful of lawmakers have not indicated how they plan to vote. GOP Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado announced in an op-ed that he would not vote to impeach Mayorkas. GOP Rep. Tom McClintock of California wrote on X on Tuesday he also will vote against impeaching the DHS secretary.

Tom Suozzi, a Democratic candidate for Congress looking to replace George Santos, speaks at a rally in New York on Sunday.

Democrats have been prepared to seize on House Republicans’ threats to tank a border compromise at the behest of former President Donald Trump, taking Republicans’ opposition to bill on the campaign trail days ahead of its release and subsequent sputtering end.

“It’s the closest we’ve come in decades and they’re rejecting it so they can’t blame us,” Rep. Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat said last week of the Senate border and foreign aid package that is now struggling to gather support in the Senate amid opposition from Trump and the GOP.

Democratic candidate Tom Suozzi, who is running in a special election to replace former Rep. George Santos of New York, essentially crashed a news conference his opponent held on immigration. When they were done, Suozzi held his own gaggle and offered a rebuttal and an outline of bipartisan solutions to fix the border, something he was heavily involved in when he served in Congress back in 2019.

“It is a better issue to run on now than it was 10 days ago because of the fact that the deal is so close,” Suozzi told CNN a week ago.

Before the text of the bill was even released, Democrats were largely embracing the opportunity to talk about it, even as some have argued it could hurt the party with their base and includes provisions that are far more conservative than what they would have embraced even a year ago.

Read more about Democrats campaigning on the border deal last week here.

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House State Dining Room on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden said Tuesday he’s not ready to consider supporting standalone bills for Ukraine and Israel aid if the border package fails. 

“I’m not going to concede that now, we need it all,” the president told CNN’s MJ Lee at the White House. “The rest of the world is looking at us, and they really are.”

Aid for Ukraine and Israel had been linked together by funding for border security as lawmakers worked on a compromise over the last several months.

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that those who oppose the Senate border bill are “denying aid” to Palestinian people who are “really suffering.” 

“This bipartisan agreement also provides Israel with what it needs to protect its people and defend himself against Hamas terrorists, and it will provide the necessary lifesaving humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people,” Biden said. “By opposing this bill, they are denying aid to the people who are really suffering and desperately need help.”

The bill includes security assistance for Israel and humanitarian assistance for civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the White House on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden made a point to illustrate support for the supplemental aid package from conservative groups that supported former President Donald Trump.

“The reforms in this bill are essential for making our border more orderly, more humane and more secure,” Biden said. “That’s why the Border Patrol union – which by the way endorsed Donald Trump in the 2020 election – endorses this bill.” 

The president described the union as “the people whose job it is to secure the border every single solitary day.” 

“They don’t just show up for photo ops like some members of Congress,” he said, taking another shot at some on Capitol Hill. “They’re there to do their job.” 

Biden said the US Chamber of Commerce also endorsed the bill because “they know this bill is not just good for the border, it’s also good for American business and for the American economy.” 

“It’s why The Wall Street Journal endorsed the bill with the headline this morning which reads quote, ‘A Border Security Bill Worth Passing: The Senate has reforms Trump never came close to getting,’ that’s a quote from the journal,” Biden said.

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden explicitly on Tuesday focused on former President Donald Trump in a White House speech, saying the former president derailed a painstakingly negotiated border and national security package that is expected to fail in the Senate.

The remarks offered a preview of a message Biden will repeat constantly in the coming months before the general presidential election. 

“All indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor. Why? A simple reason: Donald Trump,” Biden said in sharp remarks from the State Dining Room of the White House. 

Trump, who is hoping to make immigration a key plank of his presidential campaign, has suggested on Truth Social that approving additional resources for the border would make Republicans “look bad.” His attacks on the bill, and those from House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has said the bill would be “dead on arrival” in the House, have made the bill’s failure all but inevitable.

With immigration shaping up to be a major issue for voters this November, the speech marked an opening salvo as Biden warned he and his allies will blame Trump and Republicans “every day” should the bill fail.

“Every day between now and November, the American people are going to know that the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends,” he vowed. 

The president said that Trump, whom he is widely expected to face in a general election rematch, is blocking the bill for the sole reason that it would give him a political win. 

“Donald Trump thinks is bad for him politically. … If it helps the country, he’s not for it. He’d rather weaponize this issue that actually solve it. So for the last 24 hours, he’s done nothing, I’m told, but reach out to Republicans in the House and Senate, and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal, and it looks like they’re caving,” the president said. 

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden said Tuesday failing to pass additional aid to Ukraine amounts to giving Russia and President Vladimir Putin a win – and warned Republicans who oppose more American assistance: “History is watching.”

“We can’t walk away now. That’s what Putin is betting on,” Biden said.

Biden was speaking as it appeared a package linking changes to border rules with new aid to Ukraine and Israel was on the brink of collapse.

“Supporting this bill is standing up to Putin. Opposing this bill is playing into his hands,” he added. 

The president warned there was little time to waste in providing additional assistance to Kyiv, saying the “clock is ticking.”

“Every week, every month that passes without new aid to Ukraine means fewer artillery shells, fewer air defense systems,” he said.

Biden said failure to provide more Ukraine aid would play into Putin’s hands.

“If we don’t stop Putin’s appetite for power and control in Ukraine, he won’t limit himself to just Ukraine, and the costs for Americans and our allies and partners will rise,” he said.

“Failing to support Ukraine at this critical moment will never be forgotten,” Biden said.

US Sen. James Lankford appears on CNN on Tuesday.

Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Lankford, a key Republican negotiator on the bipartisan border deal, told CNN’s Dana Bash that he was “legitimately surprised” at where Republicans were on the border bill, a day before the bill will face its first vote in the Senate. 

“I’m legitimately surprised at where we are at this moment because – as Republicans – we’ve done lots of press conferences at the border, we’ve had lots of conversations, saying things have to change,” Lankford said on CNN’s “Inside Politics.” He added that some Republicans have moved away from the bill for political purposes.  

“I’ve got so many colleagues that are backing away. I’m not saying it’s all based on the political reasons,” Lankford said, adding that some Republicans have “issues” with the bill, but that others are backing away “based on the politics of the moment.”

He also did not promise to vote to advance the bill on Wednesday, saying he would be “glad” to “delay it” to give his colleagues more time to review the bill. But said if voting against the procedural motion is “about killing it,” then “we need to find a solution.”

Hundreds of migrants wait in line to be processed by US Border Patrol agents in Eagle Pass, Texas, in December.

President Joe Biden suggested Tuesday he’d shut down the US-Mexico border if the proposed border legislation was in place today, embracing one of the toughest measures included in the border bill package. 

“If the bill were law today, it would qualify to be shut down right now while we repair it,” Biden said.

If the border bill introduced by the Senate were passed today, the current numbers at the border would allow the Homeland Security secretary to effectively shut down the border to asylum seekers, barring those arriving at ports of entry.

The new emergency authority detailed in the package restricts border crossings if daily average migrant encounters reach 4,000 over a one-week span. If migrant crossings increase above 5,000 on average per day on a given week, DHS is required to use the authority.

Border authorities encountered around 4,800 migrants at the US-Mexico border on Monday, according to a Homeland Security official.

Republicans have argued that those metrics are still not enough, saying that it would allow thousands into the US. But the proposed legislation would dramatically curtail who is eligible for asylum in the US.

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday vowed to lay the blame for the potential failure of the Senate border security bill directly at the feet of the GOP, saying he would take that message across the country in the months leading up to the election in November.

“If the bill fails, I want to be absolutely clear about something,” Biden said from the White House Tuesday. “The American people are going to know why.”

Voters will know that Republicans in Congress said no to the bill, Biden said, “because they’re afraid of Donald Trump.”

“I’ll be taking this issue to the country,” the president said. ” … Every day between now and November the American people are going to know: The only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends. It’s time for Republicans in Congress to show a little courage, to show a little spine – to make it clear to the American people that you work for them, not for anyone else.”

“I know who I work for,” Biden added. “I work for the American people.”

US Sen. Ted Cruz speaks during a news conference at the US Capitol on Tuesday.

Senate Republicans took their own leadership to task over the dying security supplemental package, with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz saying he thinks that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s time in leadership should come to an end. 

“I think it is,” he said when asked if it’s time for McConnell to go. “Everyone here also supported a leadership challenge to Mitch McConnell in November. I think a Republican leader should actually lead this conference and should advance the priorities of Republicans.”

Cruz railed against entire conference leadership for going along with a bill that “would end in failure.”

“This was always a stupid idea. And the reason it was a stupid idea is because our leadership was not actually seeking to secure the border,” he said. “And the reason this bill got so bad is Republican leadership wanted a Ukraine bill so bad they just said, ‘Give the Democrats what they want so we can get Ukraine funding even if it doesn’t solve the problem.’”

“It was obvious this bill would end in failure and yet – repeatedly every one of us at lunch stood up repeatedly and said, ‘This is where it’s going to end,’” Cruz said. “Republican leadership would not listen to reason and now we’re in a colossal mess.”

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Republicans in Congress are “caving” to Donald Trump, putting the potential failure of the bill on the shoulders of GOP lawmakers.

While speaking about the bipartisan immigration bill that appeared dead on arrival after months of tense negotiations, Biden promised to take his message to the American people.

“All indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor,” Biden said from the White House Tuesday. “Why? A simple reason: Donald Trump.”

Trump, Biden said, spent the past 24 hours reaching out to “Republicans in the House and Senate and threaten them to try to intimidate them to vote against the proposal.”

Biden spoke of significant immigration-related measures included in the bill, and how it’s tied to security-related funding to both Israel and Ukraine.

“By opposing this bill,” Biden said, “they (Republicans) denied aid to the people who are really suffering and desperately need help.”

President Joe Biden arrives to speak in the State Dining Room of the White House on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden is speaking from the White House Tuesday afternoon about the bipartisan border deal that is on the brink of falling apart in the Senate.

The president was expected to draw a contrast between Congress and his administration’s efforts to secure a deal.

Border security is shaping up to be a defining issue in the 2024 election, and the White House is seeking to show it is taking steps to secure the border while framing former President Donald Trump and House Republicans as obstructionists.

“The critical choice in front of House Republicans will define the legacy of their narrow majority. And it is House Republicans’ last meaningful chance to stop blocking the President from securing the border,” a memo from White House spokesman Andrew Bates said.

The House Homeland Security Committee meets on Capitol Hill to vote on impeachment charges against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on January 30.

House Republicans voted last Wednesday to advance their impeachment articles against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, moving closer to taking the rare step of impeaching a Cabinet official.

The move set up a vote on the articles by the full House of Representatives, which is expected to happen Tuesday.

The House Homeland Security Committee considered its resolution claiming Mayorkas has committed high crimes and misdemeanors for his handling of the southern border, even though a number of constitutional experts have said the evidence does not reach that high bar.

The controversial move would make Mayorkas the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years.

The impeachment effort comes as House Republicans have faced building pressure from their base to hold the Biden administration accountable on a key campaign issue: the border.

The impeachment articles passed out of the House Homeland Security Committee along party lines. Republicans and Democrats on the panel debated the impeachment articles against Mayorkas for approximately 15 hours until Republicans ended the debate by blocking Democrats from introducing any further amendments.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in October.

House GOP Majority Whip Tom Emmer told CNN he is confident Republicans have the votes to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday.

“We’re whipping Republican votes. I’m confident we are going to pass it,” Emmer said Monday.

Ross Garber, a Tulane law professor who has represented many Republican officeholders as both the prosecution and defense in impeachment cases, told CNN that House Republicans have not presented evidence of impeachable offenses in their effort against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

“I think that what the House Republicans are asserting is that Secretary Mayorkas is guilty of maladministration,” Garber said. “At least as framed right now, the charges don’t rise to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor.”

Former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, who served under Republican President George W. Bush, wrote in a recent op-ed, “as a former federal judge, U.S. attorney and assistant attorney general — I can say with confidence that, for all the investigating that the House Committee on Homeland Security has done, they have failed to put forth evidence that meets the bar.”

Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley, who has been called by Republicans to serve as a witness in hearings, said, “There is no current evidence he is corrupt or committed an impeachable offense,” and 25 law professors wrote in an open letter that impeaching Mayorkas would be “utterly unjustified as a matter of constitutional law.”

Despite outside voices, a growing number of House Republicans, including House GOP leadership, support impeaching Mayorkas.

Even if Mayorkas were impeached, it is highly unlikely that he will be charged in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in March 2023.

Momentum to plot a swift impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas picked up steam in January as key swing-district Republicans expressed fresh openness to the idea amid a recent surge of migrant crossings at the southern border.

The focus on Mayorkas amounts to a shift for the House GOP, which had set its sights on potentially impeaching President Joe Biden in early 2024. But with the Biden probe moving methodically and a number of Republicans still skeptical about impeaching the president, senior Republicans now believe targeting Mayorkas will be an easier lift as the border crisis becomes a defining campaign issue.

Instead of formally launching an impeachment inquiry with a House floor vote, the effort has been unilaterally run through the Homeland Security Committee as opposed to the House Judiciary Committee, where impeachment articles typically originate, though it is not constitutionally required.

“When a committee chair doesn’t vote for regular order, it’s a huge disservice to the institution,” House Financial Services Chairman Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican, said of how the Mayorkas impeachment process unfolded.

In the investigative phase, Homeland Security Committee Republicans held 10 hearings, published five interim reports, and conducted 11 transcribed interviews with current and former Border Patrol agents. But since launching the inquiry, the GOP-led panel has held only two hearings and has decided to move forward with impeachment articles without giving the secretary an opportunity to testify.

Republicans invited Mayorkas to testify at an impeachment hearing on January 18. But the DHS secretary said he was hosting Mexican Cabinet members to discuss border enforcement, and he asked to work with the committee on scheduling a different date, according to a letter obtained by CNN.

House Homeland Security ChairMark Green of Tennessee said his committee has given Mayorkas “chance after chance to appear,” but Mayorkas wrote that he has testified before Congress more than any other Biden Cabinet official, noting that seven of those times were in front of Green’s committee.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas attends a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing in November.

In an official statement of administration policy Monday, the White House said it “strongly opposes“ the resolution to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and offered up the most forceful defense of Mayorkas ahead of Tuesday’s impeachment vote. 

“Impeaching Secretary Mayorkas would be an unprecedented and unconstitutional act of political retribution that would do nothing to solve the challenges our Nation faces in securing the border,” the statement says. 

The White House argues the House GOP’s grounds for impeachment have “no basis in law or fact” and says Mayorkas “has scrupulously followed the law, faithfully implemented policies to address the significant and longstanding challenges at the border, and engaged with Congress and the public in a manner that is truthful and transparent.”

The White House argued the impeachment resolution “would trivialize this solemn constitutional power and invite more partisan abuse of this authority in the future.”