Al Green casts a vote at Hospital Garb to end Mayorka's impeachment

With the final minutes before the vote winding down, the House watched intently Tuesday evening to see whether more Republicans would defect to the resolution to oust Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas.

Three Republicans in the House of Representatives had already voted against impeaching Mr. Mayorkas, and based on attendance at the previous vote, the GOP could afford no more. The numbers held steady, and it seemed like the charge Republicans had promised their base for more than a year — accusing Mr. Mayorkas of refusing to follow the law and betraying the public trust over a wave of migrants at the US border with Mexico – could squeak past along party lines.

Then, like a scene from a political thriller, Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, showed up at the last minute to cast a surprise vote — from a wheelchair, wearing blue hospital scrubs and tan socks. He voted no.

Mr Green's vote was decisive. It tied the score, 215 to 215, and handed Speaker Mike Johnson a stunning defeat.

“I was determined to get the vote out a long time ago — I had no idea how close it would be,” Mr. Green said in an interview on Tuesday evening from his hospital bed, where he had returned shortly after voting. “I didn't assume my vote would make a difference. I came because it was personal.”

It was a remarkable rescue from Mr. Green, who was known in the Capitol for repeatedly defying Democratic leadership to push for the impeachment of Donald J. Trump during his presidency. He had tried three times to impeach Mr. Trump, and it failed every time.

But on Tuesday night, Mr. Green, who rushed to the Capitol after undergoing emergency abdominal surgery on Friday, delivered the final blow, at least for now, to partisan impeachment charges that Democrats and constitutional law experts — including several conservatives – have said they are based on policy conflicts and not on the constitutional standard of high crimes and misdemeanors.

Mr. Green was still in the hospital recovering from surgery on Tuesday when he learned that the House would vote on the charges against Mr. Mayorkas that evening. He spoke to his doctors and called Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, to let him know he would be taking an Uber to the Capitol. Mr. Jeffries did not insist on voting, Mr. Green said, but arranged transportation for him.

“I had to cast this vote because this is a good, decent man whose reputation should not be tarnished,” Mr. Green said of Mr. Mayorkas.

He went straight to the attending physician's office on the first floor of the Capitol, where his blood pressure and temperature were checked. He insisted on bringing up the impeachment vote — “not to make a dramatic entrance,” he said, but because “this was a vote that was important to me.”

As he sat on the floor of the House of Representatives, Mr. Green said, Representative David Scott, Democrat of Georgia, turned to tell him the votes were tied. “I hadn't even thought about what that meant,” Mr. Green said.

Mr. Green did not cast a vote on an unrelated bill that immediately preceded the impeachment resolution, in what appeared to be an effort to keep Republicans in the dark.

It seemed to work.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia and an outspoken supporter of Mr. Mayorkas' impeachment, accused Democrats of playing a “game” and withholding Mr. Green's earlier vote to lull Republicans into a false sense of security .

“They hid one of their members, waited until the last minute, looked at our votes and tried to distract us from the numbers we had versus the numbers they had,” Ms. Greene told reporters on the steps of the Capitol. the voice. “So yeah, that was a strategy that was at play tonight.”

Mr. Green denied that he had timed his entry to mislead Republicans, explaining that he assumed the vote would be close, but that Republicans would prevail since they had chosen to table the resolution.

“Under the Pelosi school of politics, if you don't pass it, you don't bring it up,” Mr. Green said, referring to Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California and former Speaker.

Mr. Johnson, standing on the podium with the gavel in his hand, kept the vote open for several more minutes and tried to find a way to save the measure. The Democrats repeatedly shouted, “Order!” and booed as the voting continued.

Ultimately, Rep. Blake Moore of Utah, a member of the Republican leadership, reversed his vote so the party could bring up the resolution again at a later date — when leaders hope they will get the votes.

“I've been blessed with good surgeons, and I'm going to be here for a while,” Mr. Green said as he hung up the phone from his hospital bed. 'I'm going to take care of it now. I become a better patient.”

Catie Edmondson, Carl Hulse And Lucas Broadwater reporting contributed.