Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) told his colleague Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to “read the Constitution” after she said “he needs to grow some courage and read the room” following his vote not to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Tuesday.
McClintock was one of four Republicans who joined Democrats to oppose Mayorkas’ impeachment causing it to fail resulting in an embarrassing defeat for the House Republican majority.
After the vote, Greene told reporters that McClintock was “failing his oath of office” and that “he needs to grow some courage and read the room. The room is our country.”
Asked to respond to Greene’s comments during an interview on C-SPAN Wednesday, McClintock said Greene should worry less about reading the room and more about reading the Constitution.
“Instead of reading the room, I suggest that maybe she read the Constitution,” he said according to a clip shared by Mediaite. “She took an oath to support and defend the Constitution that very clearly lays out the grounds for impeachment. This dumbs down those grounds dramatically and would set a precedent that could be turned against the conservatives on the Supreme Court or a future Republican administration. The moment the Democrats take control of the Congress.”
Republicans’ impeachment effort is facing criticism from conservative legal experts who argue that Mayorkas’ conduct does not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors which would warrant his removal from office.
“I don’t think they’ve established any of these basis for impeachment,” constitutional law expert and Republicans go-to impeachment witness Jonathan Turley said. “The fact is, impeachment is not for being a bad cabinet member or even for being a bad person. It is a very narrow standard.”
