House GOP Impeaches DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — Just To Help Trump

House Republicans voted Tuesday to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ― not for any legitimate reason, but because they really want to help Donald Trump look tough on immigration issues ahead of the November presidential election.

The final vote was 214 to 213. A handful of House Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the effort: Reps. Ken Buck (Colo.), Tom McClintock (Calif.) and Mike Gallagher (Wis.).

The only other time Congress has impeached a cabinet secretary was in 1876, when it impeached Secretary of War William Belknapfor allegedly taking bribes.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) tried to impeach Mayorkas last week, but in a humiliating misstep , he botched the math and fell one vote short of pulling it off. He held the vote again Tuesday, when he knew that Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) would be back in town after receiving cancer treatments and able to provide the GOP with an extra vote.

Tuesday’s vote was just as tight, though, and four lawmakers ― two Democrats and two Republicans ― missed it. They were Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), Brian Mast (R-Fla) and Maria Salazar (R-Fla.). Chu later tweeted that she had to miss the vote because she tested positive for COVID-19.

The GOP’s two articles of impeachment accuse Mayorkas of “willful” refusal to comply with immigration laws, and of breaching public trust. They’re essentially blaming him for the government failing to adequately manage a surge in migration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The absurdity of their effort is that Republicans haven’t produced any evidence that Mayorkas has committed crimes, never mind crimes that meet the threshold for impeachable offenses. The Constitution spells out that impeachment is