Senate Republicans are voting in favor of holding a trial for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who was impeached by the House more than two weeks ago over his actions and leadership on the southern border and illegal immigration.
After the Republican-controlled House approved articles of impeachment this month, a growing list of Republican senators, not limited to conservative hardliners, have expressed support for a full impeachment trial for Mr. Mayorkas.
Initially, several Republican senators predicted that the House’s impeachment efforts in the Senate would be doomed.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said he believed Mayorkas was responsible for enforcing President Biden’s “disastrous immigration policies,” but did not support a Senate trial. . “An impeachment trial may be great politics, but it would set a terrible constitutional precedent, not a remedy for bad policy,” he recently wrote on Platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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“It’s going to be rejected in the Senate,” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) recently told reporters.
“To use the language of the House, it will be dead on arrival,” he said.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (D) didn’t hesitate to criticize House members on the effort. He told Axios that impeachment is “a terrible, stupid thing to do and a waste of time.”
But in the weeks following the House vote, more Republican senators supported an impeachment trial against Mayorkas. Those supporting the trial represent a somewhat unified Republican position, not just the more hardline members of Senate Republicans.
Sen. James Lankford, Republican, Oklahoma. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Last week, a group of Republican senators led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) called on Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to “demand” a Senate trial. The matter was discussed by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Eric Schmidt (R-Missouri), Rick Scott (R-Florida), and Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin). ), in a letter signed by Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Sen. Roger Marshall. , Kansas Republican, Missouri Republican Josh Hawley, Indiana Republican Mike Brown, Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville, Alabama Republican Ted Budd, Wyoming Republican Cynthia Lummis, Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. .
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To the surprise of some, both Mr. McConnell and Minority Whip John Thune, RS.D., each publicly announced their support for the trial on Tuesday. “This issue will go to the U.S. Senate, and I think the Senate needs to conduct a trial,” Thune said at a news conference, referring to the House’s move to impeach Mayorkas.
McConnell later told reporters that a trial was “the best way forward.”
McConnell told reporters that Mayorkas’ trial is “the best way forward.” (Getty Images)
Later, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-Va.), and Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) followed. He told FOX News Digital that he supports an impeachment trial.
“The Senate should fulfill its constitutional duty and hold a proper trial before the eyes of the people,” Britt said.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) reiterated his belief that his House colleagues were right to impeach Mayorkas, saying Mayorkas “was impeachable because he lied under oath that the border was secure.” “It should be done,” he said.
Sen. John Cornyn, Republican, Texas (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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As for Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho), his office has not indicated support for the trial, but said he intends to serve on the jury and withhold sentencing until the case is completed.
The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on these developments, and Fox News Digital referred to earlier statements regarding the House impeachment vote.
“House Republicans will go down in history as having trampled on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve serious challenges at the border,” DHS spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg wrote.
“Secretary Mayorkas was supporting a group of Republican and Democratic senators to develop a bipartisan solution to strengthen border security and ensure the resources needed for enforcement, while House Republicans “We’ve wasted months on an unconstitutional impeachment that doesn’t even exist,” she continued.
Despite growing Republican support for a trial, such efforts are expected to fail because it would require a two-thirds majority in the Senate to convict Mayorkas and remove him from office. has been done. Republicans are in the minority in the Senate, and members of the chamber have already joined Democrats in criticizing the House’s impeachment efforts, dampening hopes for conviction and removal from office.
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rear procedural requirements The Senate will decide how to proceed as some of the impeachment proceedings take place, including the delivery and reading of the articles to the Senate by the elected House managers, the swearing-in of senators as jurors, and the issuance of a subpoena to Mr. Mayorkas. is expected to be determined. Only a simple majority is needed to dismiss the case, and because three independent senators each caucus with Senate Democrats, Democrats, who hold a 51-49 advantage over Republicans, could seek it. .
Schumer has not said whether he supports filing a motion to dismiss and shorten the trial, and his office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital.
