Mayorkas says he won’t allow impeachment to ‘distract’ him from work at DHS

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he isn’t going to allow his recent impeachment to “distract” him, he said in a Friday interview with CNN.

“I don’t let it distract me from the work – would I have preferred that correctness had prevailed? Of course,” Mayorkas said in the interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “So, the fact that it did not, does not slow me down in doing the work that I’m tasked to do by the president of the United States.”

The Republican-led impeachment of Mayorkas in the House occurred Tuesday by way of a narrow vote, making Mayorkas the first Cabinet official to be impeached since the late 1800s. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said the Homeland Security secretary “deserves to be impeached, and Congress has a constitutional obligation to do so” after the vote.

Mayorkas also went after House Republicans for stalling more aid to Ukraine in the interview, according to CNN.

“The inability to continue with emphasis that leadership on the part of the United States – the uncertainty that we are bringing – only can empower Vladimir Putin, and we have to continue our leadership,” Mayorkas said.

The Senate has already passed a package that features $60 billion for Ukraine, but Johnson has indicated that it is not going to make it to a vote in the lower chamber. 

The White House went after Johnson Thursday for beginning a house recess and not bringing the Senate’s Ukraine aid package to the floor for a vote.

“Every day that Speaker Johnson causes our national security to deteriorate, America loses. And every day that he puts off a clean vote, congressional Republicans’ standing with the American people plunges,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said. “Running away for an early vacation only worsens both problems.”