Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) is calling the impeachment of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday “terrible.”
The Republican lawmaker who voted against the resolution multiple times said on CNN’s “OutFront” that the House decision sets a “terrible precedent.”
When asked if he reconsidered his vote before the House vote on Tuesday, he said, “No. The reality is, the facts didn’t change in my opinion of him. I prosecuted for 25 years. I know what a high crime and misdemeanor are and I know that this doesn’t qualify. This is a policy difference.”
“You can try to put lipstick on this pig. It is still a pig. And this is a terrible impeachment. It sets a terrible precedent. The first impeachment of Donald Trump was a bad impeachment. And we’ve got to stop this in this body, or we are going to lose our credibility with the – further lose our credibility with you the American public. A lot of my colleagues are coming back in the next Congress. If there’s a Republican president next Congress, you better expect an impeachment of a cabinet official,” he added.
The House voted 214-213 on Tuesday to impeach Mayorkas over his handling of the border crisis after an initial attempt failed last week.
Buck, alongside Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), joined Democrats to vote against the impeachment resolution.
The three House Republicans did the same last week, leading the votes to a tally before House GOP Vice Chairman Blake Moore (R-UT) flipped to a “no” vote to leave the door open for the effort in future.
Before this week’s and last week’s vote, Buck had made it clear that he would not vote to impeach the Biden official as he believed he did not commit a high crime or misdemeanor.
Explaining that the issue is merely “a policy difference” during a Feb. 1 interview with MSNBC’s Chris Jansing, he stated, “Let me from the outset say there is a crisis on the border. The law needs to be enforced. But if we start going down this path of impeachment with a cabinet official, we are opening a door as Republicans that we don’t want to open. The next president who is a Republican will face the same scrutiny from Democrats. It’s wrong, and we should not set this precedent.”
McClintock also shared Buck’s fears as he warned that the impeachment could be used against Republicans in the future. Explaining that electing another president is the best way to stop the border crisis, the lawmaker took to X last week, writing, “Swapping one leftist for another is a fantasy, solves nothing, excuses Biden’s culpability, and unconstitutionally expands impeachment that someday will bite Republicans.”
The only way to stop the border invasion is to replace the Biden administration at the ballot box. Swapping one leftist for another is a fantasy, solves nothing, excuses Biden’s culpability, and unconstitutionally expands impeachment that someday will bite Republicans.
— Tom McClintock (@RepMcClintock) February 6, 2024