
CV NEWS FEED // The Democratic-controlled Senate Wednesday dismissed the House’s two articles of impeachment against Biden administration Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
Senate Democrats also claimed that the articles were “unconstitutional.”
CBS News reported that the Senate’s “short-lived trial” which culminated in the dismissal of all charges against Mayorkas “brought an end to a months-long effort to punish the secretary for his handling of the southern border.”
“The entire proceeding lasted just three hours,” CBS noted.
CNN noted that the narrow Democratic Senate majority “end[ed] the historic trial before it began in earnest.”
In addition, CNN indicated that the vote to dismiss the articles fell “mostly along party lines” as moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, “was the lone Republican holdout, voting present on the first article.”
Following the successful dismissal vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, told reporters that he and his fellow Democrats “had to” dismiss the charges.
“We felt strongly we had to set a precedent that impeachment should never be used to solve policy disagreements,” Schumer claimed. “If we let that happen, it would set a disastrous precedent.”
The Senate Democratic leader further alleged that allowing the Mayorkas impeachment trial to proceed would have “degrade[d] government.”
He called the impeachment effort against the embattled cabinet secretary “hallowed, frivolous, political.”
>> POLL OVER 60% OF AMERICANS WANT MAYORKAS IMPEACHED <<
On February 13, the Republican-controlled House impeached Mayorkas by a margin of one vote. The chamber impeached the secretary on the counts of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust.”
Following the dismissal late Wednesday afternoon, Republican House leadership had a scathing message for Schumer and the rest of the Senate Democratic Caucus.
“By voting unanimously to bypass their constitutional responsibility, every single Senate Democrat has issued their full endorsement of the Biden Administration’s dangerous open border policies,” wrote Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-LA, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-MN, and Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-NY, in a joint statement.
“Secretary Mayorkas alongside President Biden has used nearly every tool at his disposal to engineer the greatest humanitarian and national security catastrophe at our borders in American history,” the House Republican leaders continued:
Tragically, Senate Democrats don’t believe this catastrophe merits their time or a discussion on the Senate floor. Instead, they’re signaling to millions demanding accountability that the cabinet official directly responsible for this disaster – who has ignored the law and misled Congress repeatedly – is above reproach. The American people will hold Senate Democrats accountable for this shameful display.
Republican Senators who worked hard to bring the impeachment to a full trial also blasted the Senate Democrats’ unanimous vote.
“Chuck Schumer and every single Democrat voted to NUKE Impeachment trials in the Senate and endorsed the disaster at our southern border,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-MO, wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“The voters of Missouri didn’t send me to Washington to play their games,” added Schmitt, a Catholic.
During the short-lived trial Wednesday, Schmitt objected to Schumer’s motion for a brief period of debate in lieu of a full trial.
“I am reserving my right to object,” the senator said Wednesday afternoon. “To dismiss or table articles of impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas without a trial … is an unprecedented move by Senator Schumer.”
“I will not assist Senator Schumer in setting our Constitution ablaze and bulldozing 200 years of precedent,” he continued.
Hours later, Schmitt declared from the Senate floor that the successful dismissal vote is “a stain on this institution. It diminishes this body.”
“It is why I stood up to object to a ridiculous idea that somehow we’re supposed to negotiate away our constitutional duty,” the lawmaker emphatically stated.
Schmitt’s colleague, Sen. Mike Lee, R-UT, wrote on X that by voting to not move forward with the trial, “the Senate made history in the worst way.”
“Lying to Congress is impeachable,” he went on:
So is deliberately facilitating a border invasion in violation of federal law.
Senate Democrats shut down any discussion of these issues.
And disposed of impeachment articles with no trial.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, slammed the 51 Senate Democrats during a speech on the Senate floor.
“Not a single Democrat senator chose to come to this floor and listen to one word of evidence,” he said:
When it comes to the Constitution, the Democrats concluded that Joe Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas defying federal law, ignoring the text of the statute, deliberately releasing criminal illegal aliens over and over again, that’s just hunky-dory. You can’t impeach him for that.
“By the way, every cabinet member, guess what?” Cruz continued. “You’ve just been given a blank slate.”
“When Democrats are in charge of the Senate the entire cabinet could ignore the law, it is no longer impeachable,” he pointed out.
Last week, Lee and Cruz penned a joint op-ed in the Wall Street Journal arguing that the Senate had a “duty” to hold a full impeachment trial of Mayorkas.
“The Constitution, Senate rules and precedent are clear: The Senate has an obligation to vote on articles of impeachment,” the senators wrote at the time.
“Republicans have respected this process,” they indicated. “We were in the majority during President Trump’s first impeachment, in 2020.”
“We fulfilled our constitutional duty and held a full trial on the floor,” the pair of senators continued. “Now that the shoe is on the other foot, Senate Democrats are trying to destroy yet another precedent and further politicize the impeachment process.”
>> CRUZ AND LEE: SENATE HAS A DUTY TO HOLD FULL IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF MAYORKAS <<
