How the Mayorkas Impeachment Failed

House Speaker Mike Johnson is taking flak from fellow Republicans after Tuesday's failed attempt to impeach Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. Johnson had expressed confidence that he had enough votes for impeachment despite the razor-thin GOP majority, but the measure failed in a 214-216 vote after three Republicans voted against it, as did a Democrat who Republicans hadn't expected to be there. Democratic Rep. Al Green showed up in a wheelchair, wearing hospital garb, to cast the deciding vote, the New York Times reports. Green had emergency abdominal surgery on Friday and was still recovering in the hospital Tuesday when the impeachment vote was scheduled.

After Green made it 215-215, GOP Rep. Blake Moore flipped his vote to "no" in a procedural move that will allow the GOP to reintroduce the measure at a later date. Green—who went back to the hospital after the vote—tells the Times he hadn't realized his vote would be decisive, but he felt it was important to vote because Mayorkas is "a good, decent man whose reputation should not be besmirched." GOP Reps. Tom McClintock, Ken Buck, and Mike Gallagher, who voted against impeachment, strongly criticized Mayorkas over the Biden administration's border policies but said they did not believe it met the standard for impeachment and could set a dangerous precedent, Fox News reports.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the leaders of the impeachment push, could be seen shouting at Gallagher in an apparent effort to get him to change his vote, the Washington Post reports. After the vote, she accused Democrats of "hiding" Green and "trying to throw us off on the numbers that we had versus the numbers they had." In a post on X, George Takei quipped: "Ah yes. The ancient 'Crouching tiger, hidden Democrat move." Former GOP Rep. George Santos, who was expelled from the chamber in December, also weighed in. "Miss me yet?" he said in a post on X, sharing a picture of the House display board when the vote was tied at 215. (More Alejandro Mayorkas stories.)