The Houston Democrat is recovering from abdominal surgery. Democrats did not expect him to attend the vote, but his surprise appearance sank the impeachment vote.

All of Texas’ House Republicans voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for failing to secure the southern border, but the House fell short of passing the historic resolution on Tuesday after Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, rushed to the House from the hospital where he was recovering from abdominal surgery to vote no.

The impeachment failed on a 216-214 vote. Four Republicans joined all Democrats in voting against the impeachment. The House has not impeached a member of a president’s cabinet in nearly 150 years.

The vote was extremely close, with the outcome unknown until the end of the vote. U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House select committee on China, voted against the resolution. Numerous Republicans, including Texan Reps. Michael McCaul and Jodey Arrington were seen circling around Gallagher as he held out on his vote.

U.S. Reps. Ken Buck of Colorado and Tom McClintock of California also voted against impeachment. U.S. Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, ended up changing his vote to a no at the last minute, tanking the vote but allowing Republicans to bring it up again in the future.

House Republicans were counting on Green to be absent. But he arrived just in time in a wheelchair and scrubs to give Democrats enough votes to kill the impeachment.

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    What kind of a dumb system do we have where everybody has to be physically present on the floor to be able to put in a vote? They can’t just do a conference call to find out how a Rep would vote and get it recorded?

    • themadcodger@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      Because our whole government operates as if this still the 1800s and the only thing holding us together is the Pony Express.

      • PopMyCop@iusearchlinux.fyi
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        9 months ago

        Pony Express

        Which was a commercial failure, if anyone is curious. The whole shebang lasted less than two years. Started in 1860, bankrupt in 1861, thanks to the telegraph’s stretch across America.

    • Infinity187@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Because Steve Scalise and Co. were able to do away with proxy voting some years ago. The kicker is his goulish ass was also in the hospital and couldn’t vote. GOP are fucking idiots.

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      9 months ago

      And the Republicans lost the vote because they were counting on him not being there, which means they were gaming this dumb system to try to pass something that wouldn’t have passed were all Representatives allowed to vote.

    • Talaraine@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      At the same time who cares more about their job, this guy or the guy who ran off to Cancun xD

  • prole@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    What a fucking joke. Seems pretty clear that one of their goals is to completely remove any meaning from the word “impeach,” so Trump’s tenure doesn’t look as bad.

    Really great priorities.

      • Buffaloaf@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Technically he got impeached for perjury. Pretty mild compared to Trump’s impeachments.

        • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Still will never understand it though. Clinton got a blowy and Republicans lost their minds. Trump fucked a hooker and nobody batted an eye

      • prole@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        Yeah but anyone who knows about that time will tell you that it’s much different and far worse now.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Greene already did that. She blamed Democrats on doing something Republicans didn’t expect for them losing, but in an indignant “how dare they” tone.

    • phx@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Meh, impeach is weak for Trump anyhow. Insurrection and possibly treason seem more in-line with his actions.

  • nkat2112@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    I wish we could see video or images of this bad-ass Democrat in hospital scrubs charging in on a wheelchair to vote.

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    9 months ago

    It’s 2024 and congress still wants people to come in to the office to raise their hand.

    • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      But not when they want to kill a bill in the Senate, they can filibuster without ever even coming into the chamber.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      During the Pandemic, Democrats approved rules allowing proxy voting. Of course, that was one of the first things Kevin (Remember him?) got rid of.

      Ha Ha

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    9 months ago

    Why would he have been in scrubs? He doesn’t work at the hospital, they don’t just hand those out to the patients.

    • downhomechunk@midwest.social
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      9 months ago

      Well, maybe they meant hospital gown? Or they gave him scrubs so his balls would not have amy chance to see daylight? Or maybe it was a stunt to get attention.

        • prole@sh.itjust.works
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          Yeah, we know. The only reason anyone would give a shit is if they’re desperately searching for something to latch onto and be upset about.

          I’m sure his political affiliation is completely irrelevant and you do the same for Republicans.

    • Laticauda@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Idk if it’s different in the US but when I went to a hospital in Canada for a broken leg they gave me scrubs and even let me keep the pants cause they were so comfy.

      • HorreC@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        I cant speak to all of the states, but when I had leg issues as well, I was doing my therapy walking down the hall in a hospital gown.

        • Buck@lemmy.world
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          I can’t speak to all hospitals, but I once came in to drop off flowers and they put scrubs on me and gave me two extra sets to use at home, as well as a boxset of the first season of Scrubs.

        • prole@sh.itjust.works
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          I imagine he didn’t want to leave the hospital in an open-back hospital gown. So they gave him scrubs.

          Why are people even focusing on this? Who fucking cares if he was wearing scrubs??

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            9 months ago

            Its not normal, you have your own clothes there, or you have staff to bring it. Why is this ok to gloss over?

    • plantedworld@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      The hospital will have spare scrubs on hand, either for surgery or for staff to change if theirs get contaminated. Or, the patient pants are vaguely scrub like.

      I’d guess they let him use some.

      • nonfuinoncuro@lemm.ee
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        Occasionally for trauma victims or homeless people we give them scrubs to leave the hospital with if they don’t have their own clothes or if they want pants to walk around the hospital with (normal gowns notoriously show off your butt as the flaps are in the back)

    • guacupado@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      out to the patients.

      He had abdominal surgery. I’m guessing you stay there for a bit until everything checks out.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Numerous Republicans, including Texan Reps. Michael McCaul and Jodey Arrington were seen circling around Gallagher as he held out on his vote.

    U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who launched Tuesday’s impeachment effort, said Democrats had plotted to make Republicans miscount the number of votes they needed.

    The vote to oust Mayorkas is the latest GOP effort to attack the Biden administration over the border crisis, as illegal crossings have reached record highs.

    Impeachment is historically used as an extraordinary measure but has become a common rallying cry among Republicans against Democratic targets, including Mayorkas and President Joe Biden.

    U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said the impeachment vote was a distraction from the House Republican Conference’s inability to pass legislation into law since taking the majority.

    “When you have no record of accomplishment to run on, nothing on education, nothing on health care, nothing about creating jobs, nothing on the environment, nothing about keeping people safe, this is what you do.


    The original article contains 890 words, the summary contains 161 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Fonts need to clearly differentiate a lowercase L from an uppercase i. It’s so frustrating I don’t understand why this bad fonts are so widespread

      • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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        I don’t know either. For some reason we fell in love with Sans-Serif (e.g. Arial) for internet stuff. I’m guessing it’s because they look less “old fashioned” than that “newspaper-looking stuff.” Personally, I find serif fonts more readable, and they would distinguish "l" from "I".

        • PopMyCop@iusearchlinux.fyi
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          9 months ago

          Same here. We’ve got some neat studies showing that serif fonts are read more quickly, which I would think is a big boon.