Tuesday was a bruising day for the Republican leaders in the House and Senate, as members of their own party went against their wishes on a handful of high-profile measures.

Over a matter of minutes in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson saw high-profile bills fail that would have impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and provided $17 billion to help Israel in its war against Hamas. 

The sequence left some Republican lawmakers questioning Johnson’s decision to bring the bills to the floor without securing the necessary votes.

“I would have thought they would have known that. I would have thought that would have been basic,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said, according to CNN. “They’re good on the other side of knowing that. Is it that hard?”

“‘Frustrating’ is not the right word. … It's maddening," Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., told Axios. 

Rep. Thomas Massie wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday morning that ousting Kevin McCarthy as speaker last year “has officially turned into an unmitigated disaster.”

“All work on separate spending bills has ceased,” he wrote. “Spending reductions have been traded for spending increases. Warrantless spying has been temporarily extended. Our majority has shrunk.

“Name one thing that’s improved under the new Speaker,” he wrote in a separate post.

Impeaching Mayorkas has been a high priority for Republicans since they won back the House in 2022. They accuse him of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust.”

Mayorkas has called the accusations “false.” Democrats — and some prominent conservatives — say Mayorkas has done nothing to meet the constitutional threshold for impeachment — “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The vote to impeach Mayorkas failed by a 216-214 vote, with four GOP members voting against it. However, one of those four, Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, changed his vote from yes to no at the last minute so Republicans could call for another vote, which they are expected to do when Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., returns from undergoing cancer treatment.

At the Capitol on Wednesday, Johnson called the impeachment vote “a setback,” adding, “but democracy is messy.”

“We live in a time of divided government,” he told reporters. “We have a razor-thin margin here, and every vote counts. Sometimes when you're counting votes and people show up when they're not expected to be in the building, that changes the equation.

He vowed to pass the articles of impeachment “in the next round.”

Johnson brought the standalone Israel aid vote to the floor after a bipartisan deal combining border and immigration reform with money for Israel and Ukraine and other national security measures unraveled this week due to Republican opposition.

Because the speaker circumvented the House Rules Committee, whose far-right members have created a number of roadblocks for Republicans this Congress, the bill needed two-thirds approval in the full House. It received just 58% (250-180), with 14 Republicans voting against it and 46 Democrats voting for it.

Johnson immediately issued a statement saying, “The decision by President Biden and Leader Schumer to torpedo this bill to aid the Israeli people in their fight against Hamas is a disappointing rebuke to our closest ally in the Middle East at their time of great need.”

The Biden administration had promised to veto the bill. Schumer has pushed for Israel aid to be packaged with border and Ukraine funding.

Johnson insisted Wednesday the back-to-back failed votes are not a sign of poor leadership.

“You're seeing the messy sausage-making, the process of democracy, play out,” he said. “And it's not always clean. It's not always pretty. But the job will be done at the end of the day.

“It's a reflection on the body itself and the place where we've come in this country,” he added. “Look, the nation is divided. We lament that, right? The difference is the chasm between the two parties right now is wider than it's ever been.”

In the Senate on Tuesday, a group of Republicans hammered Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., over the bipartisan deal to secure the border and provide aid to Israel and Ukraine. 

They argued the agreement, negotiated by three senators — a Republican, a Democrat and an independent — and Biden administration officials, has too many loopholes and makes too many concessions to Democrats. They also complained that they were kept in the dark as the talks played out over months.

At a news conference, Sen. Ted Cruz said “leadership is massively out of touch with Republican voters.”

Asked if he thinks it’s time for McConnell to resign, Cruz answered, “I think it is.”

He joined Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, in calling for McConnell's ouster. Immediately after the deal was unveiled Sunday, Lee blasted it as “a disqualifying betrayal” and said, “WE NEED NEW LEADERSHIP — NOW.”

McConnell’s office did not respond to an email Wednesday seeking comment about Cruz’s and Lee’s remarks. 

On Tuesday, the Senate minority leader told reporters it was “our side that wanted to tackle the border issue” and that “things have changed over the last four months.”

Former President Donald Trump — the front-runner for the GOP nomination this year — has urged congressional Republicans to reject the deal.

Also Tuesday, news broke that Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel is considering resigning after the South Carolina primary this month.

Having long faced vocal opposition from a faction of the party, McDaniel is under renewed pressure after Trump publicly questioned whether she should stay in the job.

During what was described as a cordial private meeting Monday in Florida, Trump and McDaniel discussed the possibility that she would step down as one of a range of possibilities for changes within RNC leadership.

Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Monday: “Ronna is now Head of the RNC, and I’ll be making a decision the day after the South Carolina Primary as to my recommendations for RNC Growth.”

A potential successor being discussed is Michael Whatley, who has been the North Carolina GOP chair since 2019, according to a source familiar with the matter. Whatley, adamant backer of Trump's "stop the steal" efforts, also serves as general counsel to the RNC.

Trump, however, cannot install a new chair. An election must be held.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Note: This article was corrected to add an inadvertently dropped word.