The House will vote tonight for the second time on whether to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, on charges of willfully refusing to enforce border laws. Last week, Republicans suffered a stunning embarrassment when their yearlong push to impeach him failed on its first attempt.
But Republicans now expect to have an additional vote: Representative Steve Scalise, who is back in Washington after cancer treatment. Our congressional reporter Karoun Demirjian told me it is likely that tonight’s attempt will be successful, making Mayorkas the first sitting cabinet secretary to be impeached in American history. Here’s the latest.
Mayorkas is charged with ignoring immigration laws and acting outside his authority to release migrants on parole. But experts say that the allegations against Mayorkas do not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors, the standard for impeachment. Many constitutional law experts, both conservative and liberal, have criticized the impeachment as an attempt to resolve a policy dispute with a constitutional punishment.
There is effectively no chance Mayorkas will be removed from office by the Democratic-led Senate, since that would require two-thirds of votes. But this was never about conviction, Karoun said.
“You don’t need to be ousted from office for the black mark of being an impeached officer to have meaning,” Karoun said. “That is politically potent stuff to point out on the campaign trail.”
A critical House election could be shaped by snow
A nor’easter dumped several inches of snow on much of the Northeast, closing schools, canceling flights and complicating routines in the region. The snowfall may also shape New York’s special House election to replace the former Republican congressman and serial fabulist, George Santos.
The results are expected to be exceedingly close, and weather forecasters were predicting a half foot or more of snow in the district, with much of it falling during prime voting hours. The contest, which has been dominated by debates over the influx of migrants, will have national implications, for both the balance of Congress and for partisan expectations heading into November.
Ukraine turns to Europe as U.S. weighs aid
President Volodymyr Zelensky is redoubling his diplomatic outreach to Europe to try to fill the funding void left by months of American indecision. He is expected to seek more military assistance during visits this week to Berlin, Paris and possibly London.
Zelensky praised the U.S. Senate for approving $60 billion in assistance for Ukraine on Tuesday morning, at a moment when its soldiers are struggling with a shortage of weapons and ammunition. But he remains keenly aware that the bill will face stiff resistance from Republican leaders in the House.
In Washington, President Biden denounced Donald Trump’s support for a Russian attack on NATO allies and implored the House to pass aid for Ukraine.
The U.S. may loosen its Covid isolation guidance
Under new proposed guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Americans who test positive for Covid would no longer be advised to isolate for five days before returning to work or school.
The shift is still under consideration, but if it is approved, the C.D.C. will recommend that people return to their routines after one day without a fever, the same standard applied to the influenza and R.S.V.
How a comic nailed her closing joke
Taylor Tomlinson is one of comedy’s rising stars, with a new late-night show and one of the highest grossing tours of 2023. But nine months before taping her new Netflix special, which premiered today, she was still not confident about her closing joke.
We followed her for months, from comedy show to comedy show, as she workshopped her final punchline. Check out how her joke changed from beginning to end.
In other comedy news, Jon Stewart returned as host of “The Daily Show,” last night. “His timing was so sharp, his comic exasperation so familiar, you’d think he’d been away for a long weekend instead of more than two presidential terms,” our critic wrote.
Where puppets are the stars of Carnival
In Olinda, a small seaside city in northern Brazil, thousands of residents come out every February to parade through the streets with giant puppets, called bonecos. The four-day Carnival celebration, which wraps up today, Fat Tuesday, has made the city famous.
The ancient history of smooching
Kissing has been around for a while. Researchers have traced its history back thousands of years, with one group of scientists pinpointing South Asia as its place of origin. But Sophie Lund Rasmussen and Troels Pank Arboll, researchers who are also, fittingly, a couple, weren’t convinced.
They analyzed cuneiform texts on clay tablets from Egypt and Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq and Syria), and found evidence pushing the earliest documentation of kissing back by 1,000 years, to 2400 B.C. They argue that kissing didn’t have a single point of origin, but was common in many cultures around the world.
Have an intimate evening.
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Matthew
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