US Representative Al Green delivered the dramatic tie vote on Tuesday night that prevented House Republicans from impeaching US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
Green, a Texas Democrat who had been recovering from emergency surgery, entered the House chamber in a wheelchair just as it looked like Republican Speaker Mike Johnson had barely enough votes to get the two articles of impeachment approved.
“There was no way I was going to miss that vote,” Green said in a telephone interview from a Washington hospital, where he returned afterward.
Photo: AFP
Green, 76, said he had been planning to travel home to Texas for the weekend, but began feeling pain late last week. Examinations determined that he had an intestinal blockage, which required immediate surgery.
While watching television earlier on Tuesday, he learned of the impeachment vote against Mayorkas and told his doctors that he wanted to be there. After consultations, those doctors and Rear Admiral Brian Monahan, the attending physician of Congress and the US Supreme Court, decided he could be brought to the Capitol.
Green said he would not have taken no for an answer in any case. After he arrived on Capitol Hill, he was taken to the attending physician’s office, where a bed and other preparations awaited him.
“I stayed there, until I went upstairs for the vote,” he said.
The lawmaker said he did not realize his effort would contribute to the impeachment vote being deadlocked 215 to 215, and in doing so prevent Mayorkas’ impeachment — at least for now.
However, he said Democratic colleagues afterward told him that by showing up, he had done exactly that. Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries came over to shake his hand.
Johnson is expected to try again when House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who has been undergoing cancer treatments, returns.
One of the Republicans, Blake Moore, switched his vote to “no” to break the tie, a maneuver that allowed Johnson to bring the impeachment articles back up.
Republicans accuse Mayorkas off refusing to enforce immigration laws and breaching the public trust in failing to secure the border. A homeland security spokesperson called the impeachment “baseless” and many legal academics have said the articles do not meet constitutional standards.
Praising Mayorkas as a good man and a good secretary, Green said neither Jeffries nor his lieutenants pressured him into leaving the hospital: “They always were thinking of my health,” he said.
They did arrange for him to be returned to the hospital in a roomy sport utility vehicle, he added.
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