GOP-led Condo impeaches Region of delivery Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

Members of Congress are voting now for a second time on whether to impeach the Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas. These are live pictures from the House floor on your screen right now. Republicans say they think they have the votes to get this passed.

And the vote tallies that you see here reflect the actual vote in the impeachment. Manu Raju is back with me on Capitol Hill. So, Manu, as we watch this vote tally move, what's the latest you're hearing? Yeah, there is confidence.

Among top House Republicans that they do indeed have the votes to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas in large part because of the number of absences that's going to affect the total number of votes here that they can afford to lose because it.

Requires a majority of people who are actually present and voting and all day long. There are big concerns about some members simply not being able to show up to vote. But in the previous two votes that just occurred on the House floor, there have been essentially four members who are missing,.

Losing the last vote, two Republicans, two Democrats. That does not affect the vote tally. And there are three Republicans right now at the moment who have voted against it. That is all Speaker Johnson can afford to lose. So if another Republican were to vote no, that would be enough to scuttle it.

But there is no indication that that is going to be the case. In fact, the three Republicans who voted no are the same ones who voted no last time. Congressman McClintock of California, Ken Buck of Colorado, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin,.

The only three Republicans to vote no or no Democrats voting for this very both historic and extremely controversial measure to charge the homeland security secretary with committing high crimes or misdemeanors over his handling of the southern border.

With Mexico. This has not been done before. The Homeland Security secretary is only the second time a cabinet secretary has faced such charges who tried to remove him from office by Congress.

This, though, at the moment, Aaron, it appears that they are on their way to doing just that because right now it's deadlocked, willing 13 to 233 Republican. No votes, not people, Republicans.

Who are not voting at the moment. There are two Democrats who are not voting. If that one Republican who has not yet voted votes yes, that should be enough to push them over the finish line, assuming those other members do not return their 214 or 213.

Could be the majority vote here. So Republicans are watching as this is deadlocked now at 213 to 13. We'll see if anything has changed. But from no, there we go, Aaron, 214, the 213 Republicans right now have the votes to impeach. My guess.

The question was, if anything changes here, any sort of last second surprises among Democrats walking in here to change the vote. But we if we looks like that, there's going to be an announcement here behind the dais.

That could be the speaker of the House himself announcing their vote total Aaron. So we should listen in when he when he bangs that gavel down, but appears that they have the votes Aaron. All right. On this vote, the yeas here he is.

Let's listen in. The nays are 213. The resolution is adopted. So I'm honored. Just to put the loud and clear here, That's the well, let's listen of House Resolution 996. House Resolution 995 is hereby adopted. So my honor, to be clear, that means that the House has impeached.

The Homeland security secretary, that he has been impeached. Aaron. On the narrowest of margins on a day in which the New York special election could change the balance of power in this razor thin Republican majority,.

Had there been that Democrat Tom Suozzi, who is on the ballot tonight, they would not have had the votes to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas. But tonight they did on the 214 to 213 vote moving on, something that they have been working on for pretty much the past year,.

Something that the legal scholars really in both parties have questioned the the whether or not this is deserved for the Homeland security secretary, but one in which the Republicans say that because of his handling and things that he had said.

To Congress was enough to charge him with the high crime or misdemeanor. Now, Aaron, there will be a number of procedural things that will happen over the next several days, one of which is to actually send the two articles of impeachment.

Over from the House over to the Senate, and then the Senate will have to make a decision on how to proceed here. The Senate generally has can make its own rules on how to deal with impeachment trials. But one of the things that they can do.

Is, by a simple majority, simply vote to dismiss this altogether. And Democrats have a 5149 Senate, and there's an expectation that all Democrats will vote to dismiss this and this completely, something that Democrats call a charade, a farce and.

A hoax, and in the words of Democrats here, but nevertheless, a very significant move by the House Republicans after failing to move forward last week due to absence is a miscalculation by the speaker of the House. Now, Mike Johnson has the votes.

They have just impeached Alejandro Mayorkas. Now, the actions over to the Senate in a matter of few days or weeks is so minor. Let me just ask you, though, as you as you lay this out, it goes over to the Senate, the articles.

And I obviously people may remember when this happened with President Trump. Right. There was a group who walked the articles over, there's a process. They walk over now if they are dismissed as as you're saying it is, it is virtually certain.

That they will be. I understand there's a time frame that that would happen under. But then what does that mean for the House if if they're just outright dismissed by the Senate? Are there can you walk through.

Whether there's hearings or not or what the House is going to be doing with its time? It's over. And once they're done, once the Senate acts, it is done. And in order to convict, of course, you need two thirds majority to do that.

And there's absolutely no chance that would happen in the Senate, given that there's no Democrats who supported this in the House are not going to be expecting any Democrats to support this in the Senate. And a lot of Democrats simply say this is a complete.

Waste of time, given the real concerns and issues and policy changes that both parties say are needed at the southern border with Mexico. But still, this is something that show shows how Republicans view the border issue playing in this campaign season.

Even vulnerable Republicans in the House. This is people who represent districts that Joe Biden won all essentially voting to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas. You're recognizing they believe that this issue has potency with their voters. So, Aaron,.

They're moving ahead here, as we heard, saw the floor. But you're right, the Senate's going to kill this when they get back into session in a couple of weeks. So you got a couple of weeks here where it's hanging. I will point out, though, Manu, Ken, Buck.

Gallagher there, I'm sorry, have announced they're not running for reelection. Right. So two of the three in the House who voted against this. And by the way, that was something that was supported.

By leading conservative constitutional scholars like Jonathan Turley. Right. They are doing so because they're not running for reelection, or at least they have the runway to write. Otherwise they could lose.

Ken Buck, by the way, is going to be with us in just a few moments. But how do you anticipate this going in the Senate? Do you think it's just a simple party line or are there Republicans who are going to say that, to say.

To go ahead with this, to say high crimes and misdemeanors would be ridiculous? Yeah, it's a good question, Aaron, because there actually are a fair amount of Republicans right now who actually are uncertain.

About whether or not they will go down this route. In very senior Senate Republicans who I've been speaking with, people like Mitt Romney or others in the Republican leadership on the Senate side, simply say that this was this you know,.

I have not weighed in the view this is sort of a distraction of sorts. But there will be a lot of pressure on a lot of those Republicans who particularly ones who are not retiring like a mitt Romney to vote for this. So I expect most Republicans in the Senate.

To vote for it, but maybe some of them who I mentioned, a mitt Romney or a senator, Lisa murkowski, someone from Alaska, she is still very much potentially could run down the line, although she just recently won reelection.

So she does not have those reelection pressures. I asked her about that just a few days ago to Erin. She had real concerns about going down this road. So it wouldn't be surprising to me to see a bipartisan Senate majority reject this going forward,.

Certainly not a bipartisan Senate majority supporting moving ahead. Right. Which obviously would be very significant.

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