by With the final minutes for the vote running out, the House watched closely Tuesday night to see whether more Republicans would defect from the resolution to remove Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security.
Three House Republicans had already voted against Mayorkas’ impeachment, and based on turnout at the previous vote, the GOP couldn’t afford more. The count held steady, and it appeared that the impeachment that Republicans had promised their base for more than a year – accusing Mayorkas of refusing to follow the law and violating the public trust in connection with a surge of migrants at the border of the United States with Mexico) could manage along partisan lines.
Then, like a scene straight out of a political thriller, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, appeared at the last minute to cast a surprise vote, from a wheelchair, dressed in blue hospital scrubs and tan socks. He voted no.
Mr. Green’s vote was decisive. He settled the measure, 215 to 215, and handed President Mike Johnson a stunning defeat.
“I was determined to cast the vote much earlier; I had no idea how close it was going to be,” Green said in an interview Tuesday night from her hospital bed, where she had returned shortly after voting. “I didn’t come assuming that my vote was going to make a difference. “I came because it was personal.”
It was a notable save by Green, known on Capitol Hill for repeatedly defying Democratic leadership to push through the impeachment of Donald J. Trump during his presidency. He got I tried three times to impeach Mr. Trump, and failed every time.
But on Tuesday night, Green, who rushed to the Capitol after undergoing emergency abdominal surgery on Friday, dealt the final blow, at least for now, to the partisan impeachment charges that Democrats and Constitutional law experts, including several conservatives, have said that they are based on political disputes and not on the constitutional standard of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Green was still in the hospital Tuesday recovering from surgery when he learned the House would vote on impeachment charges against Mayorkas that night. He spoke with his doctors and called Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, to inform him that he would take an Uber to the Capitol. Jeffries did not insist that he vote, Green said, but arranged transportation for him.
“I had to cast this vote because he is a good and decent man whose reputation should not be tarnished,” Green said of Mayorkas.
He went directly to the treating doctor’s office on the first floor of the Capitol, where his blood pressure and temperature were checked. He insisted on being summoned for the impeachment vote, “not to make a dramatic entrance,” he said, but because “this was a vote that was important to me.”
While sitting on the House floor, Green said, Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., turned to tell him he had tied the vote. “I hadn’t even thought about what that meant,” Green said.
Green did not vote on an unrelated bill immediately before the impeachment resolution, in what appeared to be an attempt to keep Republicans on their toes.
It seemed to work.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia and a strong supporter of the Mayorkas impeachment campaign, accused Democrats of playing a “game” and having Green withhold her previous vote to lull Republicans into a false sense of security. .
“They hid one of their members, waiting until the last minute, watching our votes, trying to confuse us with the numbers we had versus the numbers they had,” Ms. Greene told reporters on the steps of the Capitol after the vote. . “So, yeah, that was a strategy at play tonight.”
Green denied timing his entry to mislead Republicans and explained that he assumed the vote would be close but that Republicans would prevail since they had chosen to bring the resolution to the floor.
“According to the Pelosi school of politics, you can’t bring it to the floor if it’s not going to pass,” Green said, referring to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat and former speaker.
Johnson, who was on the stand with gavel in hand, kept the vote open for several more minutes, struggling to find a way to salvage the measure. Democrats repeatedly shouted: “Order!” and booed as the vote dragged on.
In the end, Rep. Blake Moore of Utah, a member of Republican leadership, reversed his vote to allow the party to bring up the resolution again later, when leaders hope to have the votes.
“I have been blessed with good surgeons and I will be here for a while longer,” Mr. Green said as he hung up the phone from his hospital bed. “I’m going to take care of myself now. “I’m going to be a better patient.”
Catie Edmondson, Carl Hulse and Lucas Broadwater contributed reports.
