Colorado Representative Ken Buck slammed his fellow Republicans for voting to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Tuesday night, warning that the decision could threaten Congress’s “credibility” with the American public.
Buck was one of three GOP lawmakers who split with the rest of their party, rejecting the charges that accuse Mayorkas of ignoring immigration laws and making “false statements” about the U.S. southern border with Mexico. The impeachment articles passed on a 214-213 vote, with all Democrats also rejecting the measure.
The charges against Mayorkas failed a vote in the House of Representatives last week on a 214 to 216 vote. Buck, alongside Republican Congressmen Mike Gallagher, of Wisconsin, and Tom McClintock, of California, also voted against the impeachment bill during the first round of voting.
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“The reality is, the facts didn’t change in my opinion of him,” Buck told CNN’s Erin Burnett Tuesday night, who asked the congressman if he had reconsidered his “no” vote at all before the House held a second vote on Mayorkas’ impeachment.
“You can try to put lipstick on this pig. It is still a pig,” Buck continued. “And this is a terrible impeachment. It sets a terrible precedent.”
“The first impeachment of [former President] Donald Trump was a bad impeachment,” he added. “And we’ve got to stop this in this body, or we are going to…further lose our credibility with you, the American public.”
Mayorkas, who is the first U.S. Cabinet secretary to be impeached since 1876, became a target for the GOP in recent months as Republicans ramp up their attacks on the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement shared with Newsweek Tuesday that the impeachment charges against the secretary didn’t hold “a shred of evidence or legitimate Constitutional grounds.”
Supporters of Mayorkas’ impeachment included House Speaker Mike Johnson, who wrote in a statement Tuesday that the secretary “deserves to be impeached, and Congress has a constitutional obligation to do so.”
“From his first day in office, Secretary Mayorkas has willfully and consistently refused to comply with federal immigration laws, fueling the worst border catastrophe in American history,” Johnson continued. “He has undermined public trust through multiple false statements to Congress, obstructed lawful oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, and violated his oath of office.”
Newsweek reached out to Johnson’s office via email Tuesday for comment on Buck’s criticism.
Trump made history as the first U.S. president to be impeached twice—once in 2019 and again in 2021. The first articles of impeachment against the former president accused him of abuse of power and obstructing Congress. The second was for inciting an insurrection in connection to the riots on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal last week, Gallagher compared Mayorkas’ charges to Trump’s first impeachment vote, adding that Republicans should handle the secretary’s charges differently than the “Democrats’ rushed process against Mr. Trump.”
McClintock also wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter, last week that he opposed “impeaching Mayorkas for the same reasons” that he opposed impeaching Trump in 2019.
“The Constitution reserves impeachment for treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors,” McClintock added. “Mayorkas is guilty of maladministration, but that is not grounds for impeachment.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.