Just when you thought House Republicans couldn’t warp the impeachment process any more, here we are, watching them twist and stretch this weighty constitutional provision beyond all recognition — like some grimy wad of Silly Putty pulled from under Marjorie Taylor Greene’s sofa.
Opening a half-baked, highly partisan investigation into President Biden was a cheap stunt. But I’d argue that as House Republicans move forward with a floor vote to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, they are poised to drag the chamber down an even more tortured — and potentially damaging — path.
Yes, the Biden impeachment folly is built on a steaming pile of unsubstantiated charges and fever dreams sprung from the House’s conspiracy caucus. But, while desperate and dishonest, at least the effort claims offenses that, if true, would qualify as impeachable. It would indeed be a major scandal if a vice president abused his office — taking bribes, even — to enrich himself and his family. House Republicans have yet to produce evidence that Mr. Biden did anything of the sort. But if ever they do, it will be wild times for sure!
In targeting Mr. Mayorkas, Republican lawmakers aren’t really even bothering to pretend there are “high crimes and misdemeanors” at issue. The essence of their case is that the secretary has done a lousy job dealing with the influx of migrants across the southern border. They charge that he has repeatedly violated immigration-related laws, fueling the surge, and abused the public trust by lying to Congress about how insecure the border actually is.
Pretty much everyone recognizes that this is not really about Mr. Mayorkas — who, as a cabinet official, is responsible for carrying out the policy preferences of the president. Those policies, obviously, are what House Republicans are riled up about. By putting the secretary through an impeachment inquiry, Donald Trump’s congressional team is putting Mr. Biden’s border record on trial in the midst of a high-stakes presidential contest. It is a tawdry political ploy dressed up as a high-minded policy dispute. But — and I cannot stress this enough — even the highest-minded policy dispute is not grounds for impeachment.
Forget simply spinning together snippets of fact and fiction to create a tall tale of criminal malfeasance. Republicans are preparing to go that extra step of redefining the entire concept of impeachment to fit their political agenda. That, my friends, takes brass.
Let me note that I, too, have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s handling of the border mess. It is a gnarly problem — and one that Republicans have repeatedly shown they would rather exploit than productively address. (House Republicans’ refusal to get serious about the bipartisan compromise their Senate counterparts have been sweating blood over is shameful.) But for too long Mr. Biden’s White House team was so tied up in knots about how to approach the crisis — a word Mr. Mayorkas still can’t bring himself to utter — that they bickered and dithered and failed to develop, much less telegraph or execute, a coherent strategy. It wasn’t until the flood of migrant arrivals started straining Democratic cities such as New York and Washington that the president’s people seemed to grasp the depth of the challenge and public concern.
But impeachment? Come on, fellas. It doesn’t take a constitutional expert to call out that hogwash.
Or maybe I’m looking at this all wrong. If policy beefs can be the basis for impeachment, just think of all the fun we could have had with the Trump administration. Among the decisions I personally found irresponsible and/or morally bankrupt: pulling the United States out of the Paris climate accord; cutting taxes on rich folks; enacting a Muslim travel ban; separating migrant children from their parents. … Oh! While we’re at it, is it too late to impeach the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade? Because I’m betting I’m not the only person harboring some rage over that one.
But why look to the past? If this genie winds up loosed upon the political world, future administrations from both parties can look forward to getting bogged down in impeachment quagmires over all sorts of hot-button issues. As unproductive, bone-headed precedents go, this one has the potential to be next-level.
Republican House members aren’t idiots. (Well, most aren’t.) They know that, if they vote to impeach, plenty of people will recognize the move as the crass political ploy it is. And while this risks further undermining public confidence in Congress, it overwhelmingly serves the narrow political interests of the MAGA king — which is all today’s G.O.P. is expected to prioritize. The more the American people come to see impeachment as just another base political weapon, the less seriously they will take it — and, by extension, the less seriously they will regard Mr. Trump’s inglorious achievement as the only U.S. president to be impeached twice.
If everyone is tarnished by impeachment, then nobody is.
Not all Republicans are eager to hurl themselves into this dumpster fire. Representative Ken Buck of Colorado has declared himself a solid “no” on impeaching Mr. Mayorkas, noting, “He’s terrible and the border is a disaster, but that’s not impeachable.” Pursuing such a course would be a move “in the wrong direction” that could damage Congress as an institution, he fretted to The Times last week.
Such sound reasoning suggests Mr. Buck is a sensible guy. Which may explain why he’s retiring at the end of this term.
If it comes to pass, a Mayorkas impeachment — like the Biden impeachment — is expected to belly flop in the Senate. As it should. But serious damage would still have been done, as House Republicans, drunk on Trumpism, make a mockery of yet another piece of the Constitution.
Wouldn’t it be wiser to stop the madness now and just jam that Silly Putty right back under Ms. Greene’s sofa?