This week, Republicans are moving forward with their blatantly unconstitutional attempt to undermine the Biden administration by finally sending articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate for a trial. The list of MAGA managers slated to lead the impeachment proceedings shows just how deeply unserious this unconstitutional stunt is. The roster includes far-right figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Andy Biggs, Clay Higgins, and Harriet Hageman – all of whom are election deniers who directly worked to overturn the 2020 election or hold ties to extremist groups and continue to push fringe conspiracy theories.
It should come as no surprise that the House GOP is sending the most radical MAGA Republicans in their caucus to present these articles. There was never any evidence to impeach Secretary Mayorkas in the first place. House Republicans have completely failed to name any high crimes or misdemeanors and the constitution clearly states that impeachment is limited to high crimes and misdemeanors, not policy disagreements – a fact that has been reaffirmed by countless legal experts and documentation from the founders. They can’t even convince members in their own ranks to support this naked partisan game; opposition to this baseless stunt is bipartisan, and this baseless stunt was doomed from the beginning. MAGA Republicans are just desperate to score points with their MAGA base, playing partisan political games at the behest of Trump and targeting the Biden administration with an evidence-free, unconstitutional impeachment push. Just take a look at who the House GOP hand-picked as their MAGA Mayorkas impeachment managers:
MAGA Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN). This baseless and unconstitutional impeachment effort has always been spearheaded by MAGA Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green. Green is a MAGA Republican and member of the far-right Freedom Caucus who has endorsed Donald Trump’s re-election bid. Green has repeatedly demonstrated that this is just another partisan stunt, telling donors at a fundraiser over nine months ago that he would produce impeachment charges of high crimes and misdemeanors against Secretary Mayorkas: “get the popcorn…it’s going to be fun.” Even as he spent months investigating Secretary Mayorkas and finding no evidence of wrongdoing or even grounds for impeachment, Green has a record of refusing to work towards reforming our broken immigration system. Green is also a top Trump ally. In 2017, Trump even nominated Green to serve as U.S. Secretary of the Army, but withdrew the nomination after intense criticism – including from Senate Republicans – over his past statements about Muslims and LGBTQI+ people. Like Trump, Green has close ties with right-wing authoritarian leaders, and met with the inner circle of far-right former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in November 2021 to discuss “voting integrity policies.” Green voted against certification of the Electoral College and joined an amicus brief seeking to throw out the votes in four key states won by Joe Biden. He was also one of the members who was texting Mark Meadows about overturning the election.
Far-Right Favorite Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). A far-right mainstay, Greene has been pushing to impeach Secretary Mayorkas from the beginning, demanding his resignation for months before the 2022 midterm elections. Greene is so extreme that she’s been pushing to oust MAGA Speaker Mike Johnson simply for preventing a government shutdown. As early as November 2022, she began pushing for investigations into Mayorkas, posting on X, “More things like this to come.” Just a few months ago, Greene forced a vote on her own baseless impeachment resolution against Secretary Mayorkas, which failed to advance after facing bipartisan opposition. Greene even started fundraising off the vote to impeach Secretary Mayorkas in November 2023, encouraging her supporters to “chip in,” alongside a statement declaring, “If you have a Republican Representative, urge them to stand with MTG and IMPEACH Mayorkas now!” And this isn’t the first partisan power grab Greene has attempted – she was a top January 6th conspirator who was a key figure working in Congress to overturn the results in Donald Trump’s favor. Her leadership in the events of January 6, 2021 were so pronounced that her eligibility to run for office has been challenged in court. She relentlessly spread lies about the 2020 election being “stolen,” and she texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows frequently for strategic guidance on overturning the election. Greene went as far as to suggest declaring martial law to keep Trump in office, and reportedly attended a December 21 White House meeting focused on efforts to pressure Mike Pence to help overturn the election.
January 6th Planner Andy Biggs (R-AZ). Biggs is one of the most extreme Republicans in the House. Biggs has long been one of Trump’s most-ardent supporters in Congress, and his “unwavering loyalty” to the former President is well-known. Just last week, Arizona investigators subpoenaed Biggs over his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He schemed with Mark Meadows, pushed dangerous lies and conspiracies, and helped far-right activists plan the Ellipse rally on Jan. 6. Biggs has already faced a subpoena by the January 6th Committee for his involvement in “plans to bring protestors to Washington on January 6th and efforts to persuade state officials that the 2020 election was stolen,” as well as ‘potential involvement’ in “the former President’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. After working extensively to overturn the 2020 election, Biggs lacks the credibility to be seriously involved in any investigations – let alone manage an impeachment trial.
Secessionist and Fringe Conspiracy Theorist Clay Higgins (R-LA). Higgins is a MAGA extremist who has openly embraced secessionist rhetoric and regularly makes headlines for pushing fringe, far-right conspiracy theories. An early election denier, he released a bizarre video in 2020 while votes were being counted claiming to have “inside data that this election is compromised…Our president won this election. Feel my spirit.” After the Electoral College confirmed Joe Biden’s victory, Higgins compared supposed election fraud to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, saying, “the Supreme Court of the United States did not stop it. Lessons of history. They were 120 thousand. We are 75 million.” At the end of December 2020, just two weeks before the violent attack on the Capitol on January 6th, Higgins tweeted that Biden’s inauguration, “will mark the final hour of conspiracy to dismantle the American election process, and the first hour of conspiracy to dismantle America.” He also signed a brief supporting Texas’s lawsuit seeking to throw out the election results in key states, then voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Higgins has continued to defend the actions of the January 6 rioters, calling their treatment by the Department of Justice “disgusting,” and he even publicly challenged a random Alaska man who called him a “traitor” for voting to overturn the election to a physical brawl. In November 2023, he even floated a conspiracy theory that the FBI sent “ghost buses” to Washington D.C. on January 6th, filled with “FBI informants dressed as Trump supporters, deployed onto our Capitol.” Just last week, he baselessly claimed that federal law enforcement officers “entrapped” Trump supporters into violently attacking the Capitol.
Far-Right Extremist Harriet M. Hageman (R-WY). Hageman is a MAGA loyalist, endorsing Trump for president and defending him after his Manhattan indictment, releasing a statement declaring “nothing in there that has demonstrated he has broken the law.” She is a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus and holds close ties with the MAGA chair of the Wyoming GOP, who is affiliated with the white supremacist Oath Keepers militia.
Election Denier Oversight Subcommittee Chair Ben Cline (R-VA). Cline, a Judiciary subcommittee chair and Trump endorsee, has been pushing for partisan investigations based on outlandish conspiracy theories for years. A member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, Cline has suggested that there were millions of “illegal votes” for Biden and demanded that the Department of Justice investigate the election before votes were even counted. Cline is an election denier who voted against certification of the Electoral College, claiming that the 2020 election was supposedly “riddled with an unprecedented number of allegations of irregularities and improprieties.” Cline has even aligned himself with far-right figures like Trump attorney Sidney Powell.
Election Denier & Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest (R-MS). Guest is a MAGA Republican who voted to overturn the election for Trump and joined the Texas amicus brief that sought to overturn the votes of millions of Americans. Guest faced criticism for his vote to establish an independent commission to investigate the events of January 6.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY). Garbarino has a record of pushing partisan stunts instead of taking action on immigration. In March 2021, Garbarino voted against an immigration reform bill passed by a bipartisan margin in the House. In 2022, Garbarino voted against billions of dollars in border security funding as part of the FY 2022 and FY 2023 spending packages. After months of House Republicans failing to take action on immigration, Garbarino voted in favor of advancing MAGA extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene’s baseless impeachment resolution against Secretary Mayorkas in November 2023.
MAGA Republican August Pfluger (R-TX). Pfluger is an MAGA Republican and election denier who has endorsed Trump and voted against certifying the 2020 election results. Like Garbarino, Pfluger has a record of failing to take action on immigration, instead preferring to push partisan stunts. He voted against the same two bipartisan immigration reform bills that passed the House with both Democratic and Republican votes in 2021, and voted against billions of dollars in border security funding as part of the FY 2022 and FY 2023 spending packages – the latter of which included a nearly $4.9 billion supplemental request for the border and provided the Border Patrol with $7.153 billion ( a 17 percent increase from the year before).
Trump Loyalist Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL). Lee, an early voice pushing for investigations into Secretary Mayorkas as part of Republicans’ plan to impeach him, is a MAGA loyalist who has endorsed Trump as part of a desperate attempt to regain his favor. While working as Florida Secretary of State under authoritarian Governor Ron DeSantis, she personally oversaw a massive purge of millions of voters from registration rolls.
Republican Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX). McCaul, a Trump-endorsed Republican, has a record of pushing partisan stunts – he has used his powerful position as Foreign Affairs Committee Chair to hold hearings exploiting the painful stories of veterans in order to score political points. He has also defended Trump’s mishandling of classified documents amid ongoing criminal proceedings.