Wednesday morning news: January 31, 2024

AUDIO: [gavel] A quorum being present, the committee will be in order.

Mayorkas » On Capitol Hill last night, a marathon session of the House Homeland Security Committee.

AUDIO: The committee is meeting today to consider H.Res. 863, impeaching Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Lawmakers debated into the early hours of this morning with Chairman Mark Green arguing that Mayorkas has willfully refused to enforce immigration laws.

GREEN: Secretary Mayorkas is the very type of public official the framers feared, someone who would cast aside the laws passed by a co-equal branch of government, replacing those with his own preferences, hurting his fellow Americans in the process.

Republicans are charging the secretary with refusal to follow the law and a breach of public trust.

But the committee’s top Democrat, Congressman Benie Thompson countered:

THOMPSON: Neither of the impeachment charges are a high crime and misdemeanor under Article 2 of the Constitution. No serious person believes they are.

Democrats argued that carrying out the policies of his boss, President Biden, is not an impeachable offense and called the entire proceeding a political stunt.

A full floor vote on the articles of impeachment could happen as early as next week.

Border » Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says negotiators are close to finishing work on a supplemental national security bill … that would tackle the border crisis while also funding aid to Ukraine.

SCHUMER: We are approaching the finish line, but the work is not done. We’ll continue to finish the supplemental.

But House Speaker Mike Johnson says from what he’s heard so far about the Senate bill, he does not believe it would secure the border.

JOHNSON: We have to insist — We have a responsibility, a duty, to the American people to insist that the border catastrophe is ended. And just trying to whitewash that or to do something for political purposes is not going to cut it.

And that, he said, would be a non-starter in the House.

President Biden said this week, “I’ve done all I can do” to secure the border. He suggested there’s nothing more he can do without new legislation.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton:

DALTON: If speaker Johnson is serious about securing the border, which he also said this morning that he is, then he should work across the aisle with us.

But Republicans say the president already has all the authority he needs to curb the border crisis, but chooses not to and is trying to shift the blame to GOP lawmakers.

Trump Illinois » Donald Trump will appear on Illinois’ presidential primary ballots despite an effort to disqualify him. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: The State’s Board of Elections ruled unanimously to keep Trump on the ballots. The ruling came after the board’s hearing officer recommended removing Trump's name.

He suggested Trump’s actions surrounding the Capitol riot qualified as insurrection under the 14th Amendment to the U-S Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments next week on whether Colorado can remove Trump from its state’s primary ballots.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Iran » In the wake of an Iran-backed drone attack that killed three U.S. service members on Sunday, Republican lawmakers say they want answers from the White House.

Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell says the Biden administration has a duty to inform Congress of what its strategy will be going forward to deter threats from Iran and its proxies.

McConnell said President Biden’s existing strategy clearly has not worked. And he said recent comments by top officials in his administration are only making matters worse.

MCCONNELL: Their public hand-wringing and fear of escalation sends exactly the wrong message to Tehran and other enemies of America.

The White House has vowed to answer the attack “decisively,” but has repeatedly said its “focus” is to not escalate tensions or expand conflict in the Middle East.

Meantime, President Biden on Tuesday spoke with the families of the troops killed in the drone attack in Jordan.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby:

KIRBY: He expressed to them how proud we all are of their service, how we mourn and feel sorrow over their loss.

The president will attend a ceremony on Friday transferring the remains of the fallen troops to their families.

HALEVI: [Speaking Hebrew]

Israel covert operation » Israel’s top general Herzi Halevi says Israeli Defense Forces (or IDF) will not allow terrorists to hide inside hospitals.

His remarks came just hours after IDF troops carried out a covert operation in the West Bank. They walked into a hospital in the town of Jenin dressed as women and medical workers.

SOUND: [Shouting]

The troops killed three Palestinian militants that they say were planning to carry out a terrorist attack.

Hamas claimed one of the men as a member of its forces while the Islamic Jihad group said the other two belonged to its armed branch.

UNRWA » The United Nations is working to convince global leaders not to cut off funding for its Palestinian relief agency. But more than a dozen nations have already done so in the wake of serious allegations that some of the agency’s staff actively took part in the October 7th terrorist attack against Israel.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric:

DUJARRIC: We expect the secretary general to brief the member states on the actions being taken to deal with the allegations regarding some UNRWA staff. And we’ll of course listen to their concerns.

The agency, known as UNRWA has already fired at least nine workers accused of aiding Hamas, and the U.N. condemned the “abhorrent alleged acts.”

The U.N. workers are accused of crimes including kidnapping and actively taking part in the assaults and massacre of Israeli citizens last October.

Neuralink implant » Elon Musk’s company Neuralink made history this week by placing a computer chip to a human brain that could allow recipients to control computers and phones just by thinking. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has that story.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Musk announced that the first-ever recipient of the new device called “Telepathy” underwent a successful surgery and is recovering well.

He said initial results show “promising neuron spike detection.”

The computer chip is about the size of a large coin. It’s implanted in the skull attached to thin wires that connect to the brain.

Neuralink is working to connect the human nervous system to a computer system hoping to cure brain disorders like ALS.

The FDA gave Musk’s company the green light to embed the device in human brains last year after testing the device on monkeys.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Senate politics on Washington Wednesday. Plus, World Tour.

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