Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) announced Tuesday that he would vote against a resolution to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, becoming the second Republican to buck the party and putting GOP plans in jeopardy.
In a 10-page memo, McClintock offered criticism of Mayorkas but said his party had failed to identify an impeachable crime.
“Clearly the founders worried that the power of impeachment could be used to settle political disputes and so searched for limiting language to avoid such abuse,” McClintock wrote, writing his colleagues had failed to demonstrate any high crime or misdemeanor.
Assuming full attendance, Republicans can only lose three votes to pass its impeachment resolution. But with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) absent due to treatment for blood cancer, that number dwindles to just two if all other members are present, leaving no more room for GOP defections.
The House is slated to vote on impeachment Tuesday evening.
The articles of impeachment accuse Mayorkas of violating immigration laws, mainly by failing to detain a sufficient number of migrants, as well as “breach of public trust” – a novel approach that has garnered criticism.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) has already said he plans to vote against the Mayorkas resolution, similarly arguing his colleagues failed to meet the standards laid out in the constitution.
McClintock echoed earlier Republican arguments in saying President Biden was ultimately to blame for the chaos at the border.
“The logic should be obvious. A cabinet secretary’s job is to carry out the will of the president. How can he be impeached for not doing his job because he is doing it?” McClintock wrote.
“As long as the acts are within the constitutional power of the executive, those acts are not impeachable, no matter how foolish, corrupt, damaging, or egregious.”
McClintock also pointed to numerous op-eds from conservative legal scholars — including Trump impeachment lawyer Alan Dershowitz — who have condemned the move, accusing the House GOP of misusing impeachment authority.
The California lawmaker also spends ample time reviewing constitutional history and the uses of impeachment, calling for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to weigh the might of a power before improperly expanding it.
He also muses on the future of the resolution, which would be passed along to the Democratic-led Senate, calling it “delusional” to think Mayorkas would ever be removed.
“At best it will be a party-line vote,” he wrote. “More likely, it will be a bipartisan repudiation of a misuse of power.”
Emily Brooks contributed.
Updated at 9:59 a.m. ET