'This is a road we shouldn't go down': Rep Tom McClintock explains vote against impeaching DHS Sec Alejandro Mayorkas on 'Fox & Friends'
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: California Rep Tom McClintock joined co-host Steve Doocy to discuss his stand against impeaching DHS Sec Alejandro Mayorkas on the February 7 episode of 'Fox & Friends.'
He was among the four Republicans who opposed the move as it was put to vote in the House on February 6. The others were Mike Gallagher, Ken Buck, and Blake Moore.
Why did Tom McClintock vote against impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas?
The congressman claimed that the reason behind his action was the same as it had been when he opposed the impeachment of Donald Trump back in 2021.
"The constitution reserves impeachment for treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors. That has a very specific meaning. Crimes related to the offices," he launched into an explanation.
"Mayorkas is guilty of maladministration on a truly cosmic scale, but that is not grounds for impeachment. We know that because the Constitutional Convention considered that and rejected it for that very reason."
"The more we dumb down that standard, (when) Democrats take control of the House, they'll turn it against the conservatives on the Supreme Court, they'll turn it against the future Republican administration. This is a road we really shouldn't be going down," he continued.
"Even if Mayorkas had been removed from office, he would have been replaced by someone like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez," McClintock added, asserting that addressing the border crisis doesn't entail merely substituting one leftist official with another, but rather necessitates a change in the entire administration.
He emphasized that the power to effect such change lies solely with the people at the ballot box.
"People voted for the border crisis when they voted for Joe Biden"
McClintock feels removing some officials, including the President, won't solve the border crisis, because the "administration itself and its policies are the problem."
"I tell folks all the time, you want to know how this happened? If you voted for Biden and the Democrats, this is exactly what you voted for, and if you're surprised by that, you weren't paying any attention. This is what they had promised to do, this is what they have done, and this is what they have defended for the last three years," he claimed.
"The American people... are coming around to that conclusion. A lot of buyer's remorse from Biden voters looking at what that has now done to our country," he added, asking, "Why would we want to get in the way of that by politicizing this in a very unconstitutional way?"
