House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) called on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to be impeached on Friday, saying the chief border official’s “failure to act” necessitates Congress removing him from his position.
Because Mayorkas has not resigned, “he should be impeached,” Emmer told Breitbart News.
The Minnesota Republican, while speaking during a one-on-one interview in his Capitol Hill office Friday, delved into the heated topic of impeachment, saying the overwhelmed southern border represents the “greatest malfeasance” at the hands of President Joe Biden’s top border official.
“They talk about being humane. Children are disappearing. People are getting killed,” Emmer said. “You’ve got 80 people that have come across the southern border that are on the terrorist watch list.”
Emmer’s comments come the day after Biden lifted the Title 42 border barrier, a policy former President Donald Trump implemented in the name of coronavirus that has served as one of the last tools for border officials to work to stem waves of illegal migration.
Prior to Thursday, the Biden administration had seen more than five million encounters of illegal migrants at the southern border, according to federal data.
“This, to me, is the greatest malfeasance, and malfeasance is — it’s not a failure to act — it’s an intentional failure to act. Mayorkas should be impeached,” Emmer said. “I think we should be talking seriously about that regardless of what this feckless Senate might want to do.”
Emmer, the number three Republican in the House, moreover concluded that the Biden administration has “blood on their hands,” a comment that is similar in gravity to what House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) said one day prior at a press conference.
“Mayorkas is guilty of child abuse, in my opinion, by not vetting the sponsors of the parents, supposedly, or sponsors of these children,” McCaul told reporters minutes after the House passed Republicans’ marquee border security bill on Thursday.
Emmer’s commentary is however GOP leadership’s strongest rebuke yet of Biden’s border chief and serves as an escalation from earlier this year, when the Minnesota Republican said impeachment was merely “possible” given the surging illegal migration that has occurred since Biden took office.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told Breitbart News during this interview in March that he was open to considering impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas.
Matthew Perdie / Breitbart News, Jack Knudsen / Breitbart News, Zenny Phuong, Breitbart News
“The one thing I’ve always said is we’re not like Democrats; we don’t do impeachment just for political purposes,” McCarthy said. “But if something rises to that occasion — that’s why we will do all the homework on what has transpired down here and if that reaches to an impeachment inquiry, we’ll follow through with that.”
Emmer, when pressed further on taking such an escalatory step against Mayorkas, doubled down on his remark.
He acknowledged that while some in his conference may have “constitutional disagreements” over whether impeachment is the appropriate move, “actual law and the precedent that’s been set” indicate impeachment is the next action.
“I know that we’re going to have members — much like other constitutional disagreements we’ve had, there’s probably going to be a member who says … who’s a stickler about high crimes and misdemeanors,” Emmer said. “I believe if you look at the actual law and the precedent that’s been set — and forget about the phony impeachment stuff that the Democrats have been doing for political stunts — this one’s a real, real issue. You can see the pictures live every day. You have an administration and an idiot that’s in charge of the border. I don’t know where 85,000 children went.”
“Please,” Emmer said. “It’s time for him to go. He should do the honorable thing and resign. He won’t. Therefore, he should be impeached.”
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.
