Republicans in the House of Representatives successfully —but just barely — voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday.And just like the vast majority of the 153 passed GOP bills that have yet to — and likely will never make it onto President Joe Biden’s desk — there’s no future where Mayorkas is removed from office via a vote in the Democrat-controlled Senate after Tuesday’s partisan impeachment proceedings.Put bluntly, Mayorkas’ impeachment is a classic case of “performance politics.”Mayorkas’ impeachment came a week after Republicans in the Senate tanked a border security and foreign aid bill at the direction of former President Donald Trump, despite the slew of GOP-picked officials at the bipartisan negotiating table obtaining “wins” regarding several immigration-related policies in the final draft.Even if the border and aid bill had passed in the Senate, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson promised it would be “dead on arrival” for not doing enough to quell the number of immigrants moving to the country.Johnson and the party may not feel the drafted legislation fixed every problem they have with the US’ immigration policies, but completely trashing a bill that at least alleviates some of their frustrations demonstrates Republicans’ motive as the party in charge of the House: Cast aside responsibilities and focus on agitating prospective voters ahead of the 2024 election.Case in point: Republican Rep. Mark Green, the chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, didn’t know who would even replace Mayorkas if he were to be removed by the Senate when asked about it in a committee hearing earlier in February. After the impeachment vote succeeded on Tuesday, Green told Politico the party’s more than willing to keep impeaching DHS secretaries until someone does the job to its liking.”If that person doesn’t do his job well, we will impeach his ass too,” he said.Now that House Republicans seem unwilling even to entertain the idea of voting on a bipartisan-crafted bill to assist with the border — one that was notably endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council — while also impeaching the exact government official tasked with tackling the problem, then its members have a serious legitimacy problem: Why should Republicans vote for GOP candidates in 2024 if they refuse to solve problems?
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