Table Of Content
- House GOP Holds Impeachment Hearing Against Homeland Security Secretary
- Tighten Voting Laws
- House GOP releases impeachment articles in bid to oust Homeland Security’s Mayorkas over the border
- Senate voting now to adjourn the trial
- Sen. Jon Tester, up for re-election, releases statement critical of Biden and Mayorkas
- Having Elected House Speaker, Republicans Try Governing
A tricky proposition for many Republicans, who have long argued that abortion rights is an issue that should be left to the states, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina proposed national legislation to ban abortions after 15 weeks and proponents could force a debate on the issue. Republicans have introduced resolutions calling for the impeachment of Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and others. But in October House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy cautioned against using impeachment as a political tool and said he did not believe any Democrats warranted such a step. Republicans have been eager to claw back power in Congress, working to break the Democrats' one-party hold in Washington. All 435 seats in the House and one-third of the Senate were being decided.
House GOP Holds Impeachment Hearing Against Homeland Security Secretary
Democrats then voted to adjourn the trial, just one day after House Republicans presented the articles to the Senate. Chuck Schumer, the senate majority leader, moved to dismiss the charges outright, arguing that a cabinet official cannot be removed from office for implementing the policies of the administration he serves. In a pair of party-line votes, Democrats held that two articles alleging Mayorkas willfully refused to enforce the nation’s immigration laws and breached the public trust with his statements to Congress about the high levels of migration at the US southern border with Mexico were unconstitutional. On the first article, Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator from Alaska, voted “present”. If Democrats are unable to dismiss or table the articles, they could follow the precedent of several impeachment trials for federal judges over the last century and hold a vote to create a trial committee that would investigate the charges. While there is sufficient precedent for this approach, Democrats may prefer to end the process completely, especially in a presidential election year when immigration and border security are top issues.
Tighten Voting Laws
The House narrowly voted in February to impeach Mayorkas for his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border. House Republicans charged in two articles of impeachment that Mayorkas has not only refused to enforce existing law but also breached the public trust by lying to Congress and saying the border was secure. It was the first time in nearly 150 years a Cabinet secretary was impeached.
House GOP releases impeachment articles in bid to oust Homeland Security’s Mayorkas over the border
House Republicans fail to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas - NBC News
House Republicans fail to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Posted: Tue, 06 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky is a likely chair for the House Oversight Committee and at the top of his agenda would be the president’s son, Hunter Biden. Comer has said he would probe the younger Biden’s business dealings and look for evidence that he had compromised the president. Biden has said that he has no involvement in his son’s businesses and that his son’s previously disclosed addictions had not caused any conflicts for him. As ballots were being counted on Tuesday night, this seemed like a likely scenario. Democrats face strong headwinds to holding on to the House, from redistricting that favors Republicans to retirements in their ranks.
Senate voting now to adjourn the trial
The Louisiana Republican returned to work this week, giving them another vote. Green was wheeled onto the House floor at the last minute with no shoes to vote against impeaching Mayorkas, a shocking loss for Republicans, sources told CNN. Even though House Republicans suffered a massive defeat, GOP leaders said they planned to bring up the vote again. GOP Whip Tom Emmer projected confidence that the Republican conference will have the votes to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. While most Republicans oppose quick dismissal, some have hinted they could vote with Democrats. Impeachment rules generally allow the Senate majority to decide how to manage the trial, and Schumer has not said exactly what he will do.
Schumer: 'To protect impeachment ... senators should dismiss'
After the jurors are sworn in, Senate Republicans are likely to try to raise a series of objections if Schumer calls a vote to dismiss or table. But ultimately they cannot block a dismissal if majority Democrats have the votes. House impeachment managers previewed some of their arguments at a hearing with Mayorkas on Tuesday morning on President Biden’s budget request for the department. Republicans contend that the Biden administration and Mayorkas either got rid of policies in place under Trump that had controlled migration or enacted policies of their own that encouraged migrants from around the world to come to the U.S. illegally via the southern border.
Sen. Jon Tester, up for re-election, releases statement critical of Biden and Mayorkas
There would be pressure to introduce measures popular with the Republican base, even if Democrats employ the filibuster, the Senate rule that requires 60 votes to pass most legislation. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and their fellow Republican impeachment managers walk back through the U.S. Capitol Rotunda after transmitting articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on Tuesday. The U.S. Senate has rejected both articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, swiftly ending the trial triggered by the House's narrow vote to impeach in February. An official Senate photograph shows senators taking the oath at the start of the impeachment trial on Wednesday.
Only milk, water and candy allowed on the Senate floor
The House approved 11 GOP impeachment managers, who will prosecute the case against Mayorkas in the Senate. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he still feels the same as he did earlier today and expects the trial to wrap by midafternoon, otherwise there would be too many points of order. There will only be milk and water allowed in the chamber during the hearing Wednesday, with coffee and other beverages being strictly prohibited. Republicans then put the Senate into a quorum call as they decide what to do. Schumer rejected Cruz's call for a closed session but they're voting on it now. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, argued that Schumer's point of order is unconstitutonal and said Democrats want the Senate to "vote on political expediency" in order to "avoid listening to arguments."
Having Elected House Speaker, Republicans Try Governing
Attorneys general from Montana, Oklahoma and Missouri testified at the first impeachment hearing, highlighting the impact of migration on their states under Mayorkas' leadership. They attributed drug and trafficking incidents in their communities to the surge of migrants at the southern border. Many Republicans defended the standoff over the speaker's gavel, which was finally resolved in the post-midnight hours of Saturday morning on the narrowest of votes — one of the longest speaker's race showdowns in U.S. history.
And that meant Republican senators could only force votes on procedural questions like adjourning or going into closed session. The impeachment articles charge that Mayorkas “refused to comply with Federal immigration laws” amid a record surge of migrants and that he has “breached the public trust” in his claims to Congress that the U.S.-Mexico border is secure. House Republicans, who advanced the articles in an party-line vote, accuse Mayorkas and the Biden administration of disregarding federal laws on immigration and seek to make Mayorkas the second Cabinet official to be impeached in U.S. history.
Though McCarthy has been highly critical of Mayorkas, he has declined to firmly commit to impeachment for any Biden officials, saying that he will not make impeachment a political exercise. That position aggravated Biggs, whose resolution to impeach Mayorkas now has 32 GOP co-sponsors. House Republicans calling to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas turned up the pressure on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday, with around 20 GOP members and three former Department of Homeland Security officials gathering for a press conference. Making reference to the impeachments of Donald Trump in the last Congress, Green said that the committee has been "meticulous" in its methodology. "Today is a grave day. We have not approached this day or this process lightly. Secretary Mayorkas’s actions have forced our hand," he said. While it has been 148 years since the last successful impeachment of a Cabinet member, there have been several failed attempts in that time.
During a Fox Business interview Tuesday, Scalise said the impeachment resolution will "be on the floor next week for the full House to vote on,” providing the clearest timing yet on an impeachment vote. Republicans have repeatedly accused Mayorkas of failing to enforce the nation's laws as a record number of migrants arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border. At Thursday's hearing, lawmakers heard testimony from people whose family members have died as a result of fentanyl overdoses or violent crime. Washington — House Republicans are moving quickly on advancing impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, holding their second and final hearing on the matter in eight days. The Republicans are allowing more Freedom Caucus lawmakers on the Rules committee that shapes legislative debates.
Senators will be sworn in as jurors, turning the chamber into the court of impeachment. The Senate will then issue a summons to Mayorkas to inform him of the charges and ask for a written answer. The House Homeland Security Committee chairman, Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican who is one of the impeachment managers, read the articles aloud as most senators sat in their seats, following along with their own paper copies. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Biden and Mayorkas have “created a catastrophe” on the border, and he criticized the emerging Senate package.
At the hearing, Green accused Mayorkas of playing a game of "cat and mouse" with the committee, telling the media he would cooperate by finding a time to testify while refusing to work with committee staff. The Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, has criticized the impeachment effort as a "baseless" political attack and Democrats have argued there is no legal basis for impeaching Mayorkas. But first McCarthy, backed by former President Donald Trump, needs to show the Republican majority can keep up with basics of governing. Some Democrats had hoped to expand social services to provide such benefits as universal pre-kindergarten programs, free community college and paid family and medical leave. It replaced the Build Back Better plan that ran up against opposition from Manchin.
The balance of power in Congress - and with it the fate of President Joe Biden's White House agenda - was unclear Wednesday morning as ballots are still being counted around the country and several elections remain too close to call. ” the sergeant-at-arms proclaimed, reminding senators that they were to “keep silent on pain of imprisonment” for the duration of the trial. He charged Republicans instead to join Democrats in passing the bipartisan Senate border bill they derailed at Trump’s behest. “The impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas has nothing to do with high crimes and misdemeanors and everything to do with helping Donald Trump on the campaign trail,” Schumer added on Wednesday. In a memo released ahead of the impeachment hearing, the Department of Homeland Security pointed to those talks and contrasted them with the impeachment effort in the House.
The House approved a bill requiring states with a history of voting rights discrimination to get approval from the Department of Justice for changes to voting laws. "The dream scenario for the Democrats is that they maintain a majority in the House -- it’s not impossible, it’s unlikely but not impossible -- and they expand their majority in the Senate," he said. Confirming or denying judges is one key role that under the constitution is reserved for the Senate (other key Senate-only roles include conducting impeachment trials and advising and consenting on treaties).
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