It is a good thing Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) is retiring from Congress at the end of his term. He has shown to be an incredibly weak elected official and demonstrated his interests supersede those of the public. The country doesn’t need such elected officials loitering in Congress.
As the Washington Examiner previously reported, Buck announced on Thursday that he would vote against impeaching United States Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas — a government official whose incompetence has helped ensure the homeland is not secure.
Democrats have lauded the impeachment attempts as a political stunt — and thus demonstrated they are quite possibly the largest group of least self-aware people who ever existed. This was a group of politicians who started planning the impeachment of former President Donald Trump before he was even inaugurated. However, claims of partisan politics aside, Mayorkas has failed at one of the primary duties of his job.
Moreover, the Constitution allows Congress to impeach federal officials if it is believed they committed treason, bribery, and high crimes and misdemeanors. However, consider Mayorkas’ record and public statements regarding border security. His inability to implement effective border security policies has led to record levels of illegal immigrants attempting to enter the country.
Then, when testifying before Congress, on more than one occasion, Mayorkas claimed that the border was secure. However, this assertion was recently debunked by President Joe Biden, who said that the border hadn’t been secure in over a decade. Additionally, there were other accusations that Mayorkas might have committed perjury in previous testimonies regarding the border crisis. Given this, there does appear to be ample evidence that Mayorkas’ infractions do warrant impeachment proceedings.
Despite this, Buck still refused to proceed with holding Mayorkas accountable. And rather than admit he was too timid to do what was necessary, Buck provided a weaselly excuse about “precedent” being the impetus for this impotence.
“Let me from the outset say there is a crisis on the border, the law needs to be enforced,” Buck said. “But if we start going down this path of impeachment with a cabinet official, we are opening a door, as Republicans, that we don’t want to open. The next president who is a Republican will face the same scrutiny from Democrats. It’s wrong, and we should not set this precedent.”
This is the response of an inept government official. Mayorkas has not done his job, and he has lied to the American people about it. He repeatedly claimed that the border was secure, which was such an egregious lie that his boss, President Biden, admitted that the border had not been secure in a decade.
Moreover, Buck mentioned a fear of setting a precedent. But has he been asleep for the last eight years? Did Buck not witness what Democrats did to Trump? Did he not see what they did to his judicial nominees for the Supreme Court, such as Brett Kavanaugh? Set a precedent? What is Buck worried about — that Democrats will keep doing what they have been doing?
This has nothing to do with establishing precedents. It concerns accountability, and Buck is too afraid to do anything about it. Mayorkas has unquestionably been a disaster. The border crisis is worse than ever before, and Mayorkas kept lying to the American people about it nearly every chance he could get to talk about it. He has been on the job for over three years, but things have only worsened.
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Buck is too weak to do what is necessary. He has shown he is a willing member of a bureaucracy that helps officials escape accountability and, more often than not, fail upwards.
However, if an impeachment of Mayorkas did somehow set a precedent, then hopefully that precedent would be that if one is a dishonest, ineffective government bureaucrat whose incompetence causes the nation harm and endangers its citizens, then Congress would rightfully boot you from that position. Most importantly, this should hold true regardless of political ideology or party.