Flight delay forces two South Florida members of Congress to miss Mayorkas impeachment vote

U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel fully intended to vote against the Republicans’ impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, knew exactly how he would vote: in favor of impeachment.

With Frankel a “no” and Mast a “yes,” they were on opposite sides of the issue, but in the same predicament Tuesday evening.

They missed the vote because a massive flight delay at Palm Beach International Airport prevented them from getting to Washington, D.C., on time.

Frankel is a Democrat who represents most of Palm Beach County from West Palm Beach to Boca Raton. Mast represents most of northern Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties.

“Unfortunately, my flight from Palm Beach to Washington was severely delayed today. I waited at the airport for eight hours, which caused me, along with a Republican colleague on the same flight, to miss the vote,” Frankel said in a statement.

Mast recorded a video at PBIA and posted it on social media.

“Hey everybody, Congressman Brian Mast here sitting here at the Palm Beach airport on about hour nine of waiting for a flight with a broken circuit board. Hoping to get off the ground soon, but they did just call votes in the House of Representatives as they normally do at this time.

It looks like I’m going to miss the vote to impeach Mayorkas,” he said.

While he was recording, Frankel could be seen walking by in the background pulling her rollaway bag.

“House Republicans’ vote to impeach Secretary Mayorkas despite having no evidence of wrongdoing was a shameful political stunt that does nothing to fix our broken immigration system,” Frankel said. “Had I been present, I would have voted no, as I did last week.”

Mast said he “was there for the first one, absolutely voted to do that.”

“Thankfully,” Mast wrote in a post along with his video, “we still had enough votes to impeach him tonight. He has abandoned the trust of the American people, and he deserves to be impeached.”

The two missing votes, with Frankel a “no” and Mast a “yes,” canceled each other out and didn’t affect the outcome of the close vote.