The US Senate was due to hold the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas starting at 1pm on Easter Wednesday. It actually turned out to be a historically quick dismissal by Democrats.
As reported by the Washington Post, the Senate, at the urging of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), voted to reject both articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, who presided over the worst border crisis in American history.
Democrats voted along party lines on the first article of impeachment charging Mayorkas with “willful and systematic refusal to uphold the law,” deeming the charge unconstitutional. Senator Lisa Murkowski (RINO-Alaska) was present.
51-48-1, the Senate votes to eliminate the first article of impeachment. Murkowski is the only defector. He voted “present”. Schumer now wants to take action to eliminate the second article of impeachment.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 17, 2024
Democrats then deemed the second article unconstitutional accusing Mayorkas of “violation of public trust.” Murkowski voted with his Republican colleagues this time.
The Senate eliminates the second article of impeachment against Mayorkas, but he is defeated on a party-line vote 51-49. Murkowski sides with Rs after voting “present” on the first article
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 17, 2024
They then voted to end the impeachment “trial” entirely, again on a party-line vote.
BREAKING: The Senate voted 51-49 to adjourn the impeachment trial of Sec. Mayorkas, ends impeachment. pic.twitter.com/Sel3BLFZD0
—MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 17, 2024
As Townhall.com’s Spencer Brown notes, this move by the Senate upended 227 years of congressional history. Only once did an actual trial not take place when an individual was impeached, and that was because an impeached judge resigned before the trial began.
From Townhall.com:
Last week, 43 US Republican members signed a letter to Schumer stressing the upper house’s “constitutional duty” to “require the Senate to hold a trial.”
“In every previous congressional impeachment over the past 227 years, Congress has been faithful to the process established by the perpetrators,” the letter notes. “Never before has the Senate abandoned this duty, even when some members believed the basis for impeachment was weak at best.”
“Since 1797, twenty-one individuals have been impeached by the House of Representatives,” the Senate Republicans’ letter further recounted. “Trials took place in every single case, except once when an impeached judge resigned from office before the trial began. Absent the immediate resignation of Secretary Mayorkas, this impeachment should remain true to senatorial precedent,” the senators wrote.