Senate Kills Mayorkas Articles of Impeachment

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Facts

• After the US House voted to impeach Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in February and sent the articles to the Senate on Tuesday, the Senate on Wednesday began proceedings over whether to hold a vote on removing him from office, rapidly killing the articles of impeachment.¹
• Mayorkas faced two articles of impeachment, the first accusing him of 'willful and systemic refusal to comply with [immigration] law,' and the second being 'breach of public trust.' He has called both accusations 'baseless.'²
• The hearing began with Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) objecting to Senate Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) proposed time frame for debate and voting on the two articles of impeachment.³
• Schumer proposed one hour of debate on the first article, with seven points of order, and one hour of debate and one point of order for the second article. Schmitt objected to Schumer's proposal, so Schumer held a vote to nullify the objection.⁴
• Schumer argued the articles don't 'allege a high crime or misdemeanor,' to which Schmitt replied that the Senate has 'never before...dismissed or tabled articles of impeachment' against a living person. The Senate, along partisan lines, voted to kill both articles.⁵

Sources: ¹CNN, ²ABC News (a), ³NBC, ⁴FOX News and ⁵ABC News (b).

Narratives

• Republican narrative, as provided by wsj.com. Since taking charge of the DHS, Secretary Mayorkas has purposely ignored the border crisis and allowed it to worsen. Unlike the Republicans, who allowed two impeachment votes on Donald Trump during his presidency, the Senate Democrats seem ready to violate their constitutional obligation to do the same here. Their decision to block this trial is solely aimed at preventing the GOP from presenting evidence of Mayorkas' failure to protect American borders.
• Democratic narrative, as provided by Markey. Articles of impeachment should only go to trial if they're based on genuine, evidence-backed grievances. Unfortunately, the American people are watching their Republican lawmakers turn this historically serious congressional process into a political circus. Every accusation against Mayorkas has been debunked by the courts, but instead of acknowledging that fact and seeking legislative paths toward fixing immigration, the GOP wanted to score political infotainment points.

Predictions