Republican who oversaw Mayorka's impeachment will not seek re-election
Rep. Mark Green, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, announced Wednesday that he would not run for re-election, just a day after the Tennessee Republican oversaw the ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas.
Mr. Green, a deeply conservative former Army Ranger medic who was elected in 2018, said he had accomplished what he came to Washington to do.
“At the start of the 118th Congress, I promised my constituents to pass legislation to secure our borders and hold Secretary Mayorkas accountable,” Mr. Green said in a statement. “Today, with the House passing H.R. 2 and Secretary Mayorkas impeached, it is time for me to return home.”
Mr. Green, 59, is the third committee chairman who would be in line to lead their panel next year, saying they will leave Congress at the end of the year. Also this week, Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, 54, chair of the Energy and Trade Committee, and Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, 39, head of the Select Committee on China, announced they would not seek re-election.
All told, they are high-profile decisions for relatively young members of Congress who just a year ago won the gavel of powerful committees — coveted positions that lawmakers often wait years for.
“This place is so broken, and making a difference here is just — you know, it just feels like a lot of something for nothing,” Mr. Green said. in an interview with Axios.
In his statement, he hinted, without elaborating, that he would not leave public service, saying he would “continue to serve this country – but in a new capacity.”
Mr. Green, a member of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, served as a flight surgeon during the mission that captured Saddam Hussein and later wrote about his experiences interviewing the Iraqi leader in his book “A Night with Saddam.” President Donald J. Trump nominated Mr. Green to be secretary of the Army in 2017, when he was a senator, but he subsequently withdrew. lawmakers from both parties expressed concern over a series of anti-transgender comments he made.
As chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Mr. Green led efforts to oust Mr. Mayorkas, making him the first sitting Cabinet secretary ever to be indicted by the House of Representatives. That put the secretary in the company of former presidents and government officials who were impeached over allegations of personal corruption and other misconduct.
But the charges against Mr. Mayorkas broke with precedent because they failed to identify such a crime, instead effectively labeling the policy choices he has made as a constitutional crime.
Former Homeland Security secretaries and many constitutional law experts — including conservatives — have said the charges do not rise to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor, the constitutional standard for impeachment.
The first attempt to impeach Mr. Mayorkas was also groundbreaking last week, when the House of Representatives rejected the articles of impeachment that Mr. Green's panel had approved in a stunning scene on the floor as Republicans fell one vote short of passing a to gather a majority because of apostasy and absence.
The House tried again on Tuesday and won by a single vote.
Karoun Demirjian reporting contributed.