House Republicans have delayed U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s effort to impeach President Joe Biden.
The Colorado Republican on Tuesday introduced a privileged resolution, asking for Biden’s ouster and triggering a vote on the motion within two days.
The House voted, 219-208, along party lines, to refer it to the Homeland Security Committee, where it will be combined with an investigation of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The move delays a final vote on Biden and eliminates an immediate opportunity for Democrats to set aside the motion completely because of a lack of GOP support.
Boebert seeks to impeach Biden for one count of abuse of power and one count of dereliction of duty. She said the president has facilitated a “complete and total invasion at the southern border.”
“For the first time in 24 years, a House Republican-led majority is moving forward with impeachment proceedings against a current president,” Boebert said in a House debate over her resolution, according to Fox News. “This bill allows impeachment proceedings to proceed through the traditional institutional channels by building a body of evidence at the committee level, through the Committees on Homeland Security and the Judiciary.”
She added: “Biden’s lawless disregard for our federal laws has incentivized more than 5.5 illegal aliens to attempt to cross the border, overwhelming Border Patrol and allowing an invasion to take place that is causing real harm to the American people. The Biden border crisis and massive wave of illegal immigration has fueled a record-breaking fentanyl crisis since President Biden has taken office.”
Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) announced an effort to impeach Mayorkas in April.
“Just a week or so ago, we started our five phases [of the Mayorkas effort], we’re well into phase one, dereliction of duty on Mayorkas,” Green said before Thursday’s vote. “The House looks like is going to ask us to take a look at Mr. Biden’s actions President Biden’s actions in regard to this, and we will do so we will dig deeply into it. I take our oversight responsibility very seriously, and we’re going to hold people accountable.”
Republicans on Wednesday voted to censure Adam Schiff (R-CA) for allegedly lying about the Donald Trump-Russia investigation.
“There’s going to be no end to this,” Schiff said during the censure vote, according to The Associated Press.
Schiff said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has no control over GOP House members.
”The race to the extreme is now running the House of Representatives, and of course, it’s doing terrible damage to the institution,” the AP quotes Schiff as saying.
