(Headline USA) Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., announced on Thursday that he will not support his party’s efforts to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the Biden administration official’s failure to enforce immigration laws.
House Republicans introduced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas this week, citing his willful disregard for the law and dereliction of duty in regard to the border crisis. But Buck’s opposition to it could put the process in jeopardy, since the GOP is already working with a thin majority in the House.
“Let me from the outset say there is a crisis on the border, the law needs to be enforced. But if we start going down this path of impeachment with a cabinet official, we are opening a door, as Republicans, that we don’t want to open,” Buck said in a statement.
“The next president who is a Republican will face the same scrutiny from Democrats,” he added. “It’s wrong, and we should not set this precedent.”
Buck, who will retire at the end of the current session, may have failed to take into account the precedent already set by Democrats, who twice impeached former President Donald Trump based on flimsy allegations that effectively lowered the bar.
Buck also argued that Mayorkas’s offense did not meet the “high crimes and misdemeanor standard” of impeachment.
“The people that I’m talking to on the outside, the constitutional experts, former members agree that this just isn’t an impeachable offense,” he claimed.
This is a significant about-face from Buck, who earlier in President Joe Biden’s term accused Mayorkas of betraying his country, comparing him to Benedict Arnold.
At least four other Republicans are still undecided on whether to vote against Mayorkas: Reps. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C.; Dan Newhouse, R-Wash.; Tom McClintock, R-Calif.; and David Joyce, R-Ohio.
However, several Republican moderates who were at first skeptical of the effort have been reportedly working to convince their colleagues to support it.
“I intend to [support Mayorkas’ impeachment],” said. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., this week. “Because we have a disaster at the border. And I would say there’s so many laws on the books that he could enact or enforce, and he does not.”
