Table Of Content
- The next vote could be on Schumer's point of order, which could kill first article of impeachment
- Senate kills articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas
- GOP-led House impeaches Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas over border management
- Hearing on Impeachment Resolution Against Secretary Mayorkas, Part 1
All 100 senators, including Senate President Pro Tem Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, were sworn in as jurors. But Senate Republicans, demanding a full impeachment trial or the creation of a special impeachment committee, want to make the coming days as politically painful as possible for Mayorkas and his Democratic allies. “The Senate must hold a full impeachment trial of Secretary Mayorkas, or at the very least, refer the articles to an impeachment committee," Schmitt said. At each senator's desk is a notepad and a copy of the impeachment articles.
The next vote could be on Schumer's point of order, which could kill first article of impeachment
The Biden administration said the Democratic-led Senate made the right call and dismissed Republican efforts to attack Mayorkas unfounded. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters he was "deeply disappointed" that the Senate dismissed the charges, saying "there should have been a full trial." In a press conference after the trial, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he felt "very strongly that we had to set a precedent that impeachment should never be used to settle policy disagreements."
Senate kills articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas
The outright dismissal of the charges, without the opportunity to argue their case, was yet another setback for House Republicans, plagued by internal drama and a vanishingly thin majority. “What Senator Schumer is going to do is fatuous, it is fraudulent and it is an insult to the Senate and a disservice to every American citizen,” said John Kennedy, the Republican senator from Louisiana, at a press conference on Tuesday. “As they work on impeachment, I work in advancing the missions of the Department of Homeland Security. That’s what I’ve done throughout this process,” Mayorkas said on Wednesday during an appearance on CBS to discuss a new federal initiative to combat online abuse of children.
House sets second Mayorkas impeachment vote for Tuesday - CBS News
House sets second Mayorkas impeachment vote for Tuesday.
Posted: Fri, 09 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
GOP-led House impeaches Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas over border management
Democrats called the opposition a policy dispute, and said it did not rise to "high crimes and misdemeanors," as required for impeachment. The Senate then voted that the second article of impeachment alleging Mayorkas "breached the public trust" was also unconstitutional, with Murkowski this time joining her GOP colleagues in voting against it. The majority leader then called for votes to dismiss the trial, setting off a series of procedural maneuvers by Republicans to delay the proceedings, all of which were rejected by the Democratic majority. This sideshow is about scoring political points, because even if the House did vote to impeach, Senate Republicans seem unwilling to participate in the charade. (Only once has a Cabinet secretary been impeached. In 1876, Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.) Nor would removing Mayorkas change border policy.
“Despite Kevin McCarthy’s efforts to keep faith with the Trump wing of the party, I think they are suspicious of him because of his remarks after Jan. 6, which were certainly appropriate,” Fowler said. “And even though he’s walked them back and tried to make his peace with Trump he may not have the votes for the speakership. "By doing what we just did, we have in effect, ignored the directions of the House, which were to have a trial," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell after senators killed the second article.
House Republicans barely impeached Mayorkas
House impeaches Alejandro Mayorkas in historic vote, punishing DHS chief over handling of U.S.-Mexico border - CBS News
House impeaches Alejandro Mayorkas in historic vote, punishing DHS chief over handling of U.S.-Mexico border.
Posted: Wed, 14 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
"The most commonly encountered categories of impeachable conduct are official corruption, abuse of power, betrayal of the nation's foreign policy interests and subversion of the Constitution," Bowman said. "There is no serious allegation of which I'm aware that the secretary has done any of those things." Bowman explained that the Constitution defines impeachable conduct as treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors, and argued that policy disputes between Congress and a Cabinet secretary do not rise to that level.
House GOP Holds Second Impeachment Hearing Against Homeland Secretary
Republican leaders went ahead with last week's nail-biter of a floor vote amid uncertainty about whether they had enough support to impeach Mayorkas. "I assure you that your false accusations do not rattle me and do not divert me from the law enforcement and broader public service mission to which I have devoted most of my career and to which I remain devoted," he previously wrote in a letter to the committee. The successful vote follows an embarrassing defeat for Republican leaders last week, when a small group of Republicans who said Mr. Biden's border chief did not commit impeachable offenses voted with all Democrats to sink it.
“I assure you that your false accusations do not rattle me and do not divert me from the law enforcement and broader public service mission to which I have devoted most of my career and to which I remain devoted,” he wrote. Mayorkas concluded his letter to Green on Tuesday with an emotional recounting of his work in public service, noting that his parents brought him to the U.S. from Cuba and instilled in him a “reverence for law enforcement” that led him to lead DHS. The committee also heard testimony from Deborah Pearlstein, the law and public policy director at Princeton University, who noted that Congress hasn't approved substantial policy changes on immigration in decades.
Biden would simply appoint another like-minded secretary to head up homeland security. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who is facing a tough reelection bid in Ohio, called the impeachment trial a “distraction,” arguing that Republicans should instead support a bipartisan border compromise they scuttled earlier this year. Some Republicans have said they would like time to debate whether Mayorkas should be impeached, even though debate time is usually not included in impeachment proceedings.
If the House does agree to impeach Mayorkas, the charges would next to go the Senate. In 1876, the House impeached Defense Secretary William Belknap over kickbacks in government contracts, but the Senate acquitted him in a trial. The Republicans also accused Mayorkas of lying to Congress, pointing to comments about the border being secure or about vetting of Afghans airlifted to the U.S. after military withdrawal from their country. And I would say there’s so many laws on the books that he could enact or enforce, and he does not,” said Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb. “Republicans’ baseless investigation into Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is a politically motivated sham to appease extreme MAGA Members and partisan special interest groups,” Democrats said in the report. Mayorkas and Democrats have pushed back, arguing that the impeachment effort is political.
"Democrats want to strengthen border security. We want to keep fentanyl off the street. We want to keep communities safe," Thompson said. “He has served as this administration’s chief architect of their open border policies that we know has resulted in drugs pouring across our open borders, killing Americans every single day,” Morgan said of Mayorkas. Mayorkas was the first Cabinet official to be impeached in nearly 150 years.
"It’s time for Congressional Republicans to support the Department’s vital mission instead of wasting time playing political games and standing in the way of commonsense, bipartisan border reforms," she said. Mayorkas and Democrats have contended that it's a matter of policy differences, arguing that Republicans are using impeachment to score political points during an election year. They say it's up to Congress to fix the "broken" immigration system and allocate more resources to border security. The vote comes the same day as a special election in New York's third congressional district to replace former GOP Rep. George Santos, which could further narrow the House's Republican majority.
If House Republicans can muster the simple majority of votes they need to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, it will be an unprecedented moment in US history. This is the second attempt by House GOP members to impeach Mayorkas after suffering a massive and public defeat when a similar vote failed last week. The GOP-led House has voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, has said the Senate needs to hold a full trial at which it can examine the evidence against Mayorkas and come to a conclusion. The House has voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas over the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S.-Mexico border.
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