The Senate briefly deliberated articles of impeachment against Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday, ending the historic trial before it even began in earnest as the Democratic majority ignored Republican efforts to prolong the stalled process. was terminated.
House Republicans voted in favor of impeaching Mayorkas on February 13 in a second attempt, although they did not get the necessary votes the first time. The Biden appointee is the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years.
There was less drama in the Senate, which proceeded within hours of largely partisan votes to declare two articles of impeachment against Mr. Mayorkas unconstitutional (one for “deliberate and systematic refusal to comply with the law”). has ended. ', and the other is 'social breach of trust'. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the lone Republican holdout, voting in favor of the first provision.
The blink-and-you-miss-it Senate trial is the latest in a largely failed political maneuver by House Republicans to shine a spotlight on the Biden administration's response to the southern border ahead of the general election. It was the pinnacle. But the merits of the case, which they had hoped to bring to the Senate, lacked substance and was widely seen by some as a distraction from other election-year messages. House Republicans say the evidence against Mayorkas, the first Latino to hold office, committed a high crime and the misdemeanor charge did not pass consultation with constitutional experts. He claimed that he was unable to clear the high hurdle.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer offered Republicans a time agreement that would allow for some floor debate and votes on trial resolutions and points of order before ultimately voting to dismiss the case. The meeting began.
However, Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri objected, saying he did not agree with the proposal to end the matter with the “unprecedented” step of ending the impeachment case without a trial. Many Republicans had hoped for a deal because it would allow for floor speeches targeting Democrats over the process and the border situation. Without that, speech would have been allowed only to those who received unanimous consent from his colleagues, an unlikely scenario given the current political stakes.
Schumer then filed a motion to table or reject the first article of impeachment, saying it “does not allege conduct that rises to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor,” as required by the Constitution. After several procedural votes, the Senate passed the motion 51-48 with one vote present, invalidating the first article of impeachment.
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The U.S. Senate chamber Wednesday, just before senators are sworn in as jurors in the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
After several more procedural votes, Schumer's motion to introduce Article 2 was also approved, invalidating Article 2 impeachment on a party-line vote of 51-49.
The House sent articles of impeachment to the Senate on Tuesday, and senators were sworn in as jurors on Wednesday. It is highly doubtful that the court will vote to convict, which would require a two-thirds majority vote, a very high bar to clear.
Democrats have denounced the impeachment as a political stunt, saying Republicans have no legitimate grounds for impeachment and that policy disagreements do not justify the rare constitutional impeachment of cabinet ministers.
“We want to address this issue as quickly as possible,” Schumer said on the floor Tuesday. “Impeachment should never be used to resolve policy disagreements.”
He added, “Talk about a terrible precedent. This would set a terrible precedent for Congress. Every time there's a policy agreement in the House, they send it over here and tie up the Senate to do an impeachment trial. It's absurd. It's an abuse of the process.”
But many Republican lawmakers criticized the possibility of him being removed from office or moving to his seat soon.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that senators have a “rare” and “solemn” responsibility to consider articles of impeachment, and said he would oppose any effort to introduce them.
“As befits the solemn and rare responsibility of convening a court of impeachment, I intend to address these charges with all my might,” he said.
The Kentucky Republican added: “It would be a violation of the dignity of the Senate to ignore our clear responsibility and fail to give the charges being heard today the thoroughness they deserve.” . I will firmly oppose any effort to introduce articles of impeachment and avoid confronting the Biden administration's border crisis. ”
Additionally, some far-right Republican senators were trying to find a way to force a full trial, but their efforts failed to gain enough traction to pass because procedural votes along party lines failed. There wasn't.
The high number of border crossings comes as Republicans targeted Mayorkas as soon as they took control of the House and face pressure from their party base to go after the Biden administration on key campaign issues. I blamed it.
Mr. Mayorkas has pushed back against criticism of his leadership, and the Department of Homeland Security has called the impeachment effort against him a baseless political attack.
The White House has sought to flip the script, citing Republicans blocking a bipartisan border deal in the Senate as evidence the party is not serious about border security.
White House and Homeland Security officials have been in frequent contact throughout Mayorkas' impeachment inquiry, developing strategies and responses as they publicly cast the trial as a political stunt. Since Republicans began efforts to replace the Homeland Security secretary, Biden administration officials have insisted that Mayorkas intends to remain in the post and dismissed the Republican impeachment inquiry into the head of the Department of Homeland Security. It has been dismissed as meaningless.
Instead, the White House and Homeland Security officials have adopted a split-screen strategy, including wasting time on House majority proceedings while Mr. Mayorkas works with senators on a border deal. Expanded.
After months of negotiations, Senate Republicans approved a major bipartisan border deal earlier this year that would mean tough changes to immigration law and give the president broad powers to restrict the entry of illegal immigrants at the southern border. was prevented.
The deal faced fierce attacks from former President Donald Trump and House Republican leaders.
The Department of Homeland Security and the White House praised Senate Democrats for halting impeachment proceedings.
“The Senate has categorically rejected this baseless impeachment, which even conservative legal scholars have called unconstitutional,” White House Oversight and Investigations Press Secretary Ian Sams said in a statement. “President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas will continue their work to keep America safe and pursue real solutions at the border, and Congressional Republicans will continue their work to undermine real bipartisan border security reform and make unwarranted decisions.” We should join them instead of wasting our time on political stunts.”
“Secretary Mayorkas will continue to work every day to enforce the law and protect our country, as he has done throughout more than 20 years of dedicated public service,” added DHS spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg. “Rather than wasting time on political games and getting in the way of common-sense, bipartisan border reform, it’s time for Congressional Republicans to support the department’s important mission.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN's Manu Raju and Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.