Utah News Dispatch
Republicans in Congress delay Mayorkas impeachment proceedings
Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, speaks at a Senate Republican press conference on April 9, 2024. (C-SPAN screenshot)
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans will delay until next week their delivery to the Senate of the two articles of impeachment against Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a spokesperson for House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday.
“To ensure the Senate has adequate time to perform its constitutional duty, the House will transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week,” the spokesperson wrote in a late afternoon statement. “There is no reason whatsoever for the Senate to abdicate its responsibility to hold an impeachment trial.”
Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, and 11 impeachment managers had informed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that they planned to walk over the two articles of impeachment to the Senate Wednesday, but postponed after a request from Senate Republicans.
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The articles accuse Mayorkas of a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law,” and of a breach of public trust.
Once the articles are delivered in the Senate, the process for an impeachment trial immediately starts. Senate Republicans sought to avoid a timeline that had them conducting the early stages of an impeachment trial instead of flying home on Thursday as they typically do.
During a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Senate Republicans said they didn’t expect an impeachment trial to last a week, but didn’t want a trial to start so close to a fly-out date.
“If we don’t start it until the end of the week, that leaves us no adequate opportunity to debate it and you don’t want members trying to get out of town so quickly that they are influenced by the jet fumes,” Utah’s Mike Lee said.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, said during a Tuesday press conference that he plans to move through the process quickly, which has angered Senate Republicans who are pushing for a trial.
Schumer said the articles of impeachment are “absurd and there are no charges in the House complaint that rise to the level of impeachment.”
“Impeachment should never be used to settle policy disagreements,” he said.
Schumer can make a motion to dismiss or table the articles with a simple majority, where Democrats hold a slim 51 seats.
Schumer said in a statement that the Senate is prepared to move forward.
“We’re ready to go whenever they are,” Schumer said. “We are sticking with our plan. We’re going to move this as expeditiously as possible.”
If the articles are delivered to the Senate next week, the trial would begin within days of another Mayorkas appearance on Capitol Hill.
The House Homeland Security Committee, which held two impeachment proceedings and moved forward with articles of impeachment, will have Mayorkas testify on April 16 about the DHS budget for fiscal year 2025.
The chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, is also one of the 11 impeachment managers.
The rest of the Republican impeachment managers are Reps. Michael McCaul of Texas, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ben Cline of Virginia, Andrew Garbarino of New York, Michael Guest of Mississippi, Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Laurel Lee of Florida, August Pfluger of Texas and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
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