Rep. Watson Coleman Statement on Sham Impeachment Vote of Secretary Mayorkas
Washington, D.C. (February 6, 2024) — Today, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) issued the following statement regarding the sham impeachment vote of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas:
“Today, for the first time in 150 years, the House of Representatives has brought articles of impeachment against a member of the President’s Cabinet.
“House Republicans today are trying to impeach Secretary Mayorkas because they don’t have any legislative proposals that are popular with the American people. This impeachment vote is an attempt to distract from their failure to govern. Nevermind the fact that we’re weeks away from the fourth government shutdown deadline in the last five months, House Republicans have decided that now is the perfect time to impeach a cabinet secretary for no other discernible reason than they don’t particularly like the way he is doing his job, while at the same time refusing to provide him the resources he’s requested to fix our broken immigration system.
“To be sure, it is entirely reasonable and fair for members of Congress to disapprove of the manner in which a cabinet secretary does their job. I had plenty of objections to how cabinet secretaries went about their jobs during the last administration. But that does not mean they should have been impeached. Impeachment is reserved for high crimes and misdemeanors, as provided for in the Constitution, not because you happen to be grumpy and bored at the same time.
“This is just more partisanship and election-year posturing by Republicans who are so thoroughly devoid of legislative imagination that they’re resorting to cheap political stunts and Fox News prime-time auditions in lieu of actually governing.
“This resolution is a disgrace, and I will be voting against it with enthusiasm.”