Tipsheet

Schumer and McConnell Get Ready to Upend Senate Precedent to Avoid Mayorkas Trial

Some Republican Senators are blasting efforts by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to table articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, calling the move unprecedented. 

"In the history of our country no impeachment has been 'tabled,'" Republican Senator Eric Schmitt posted on X. "This is exactly what Chuck Schumer wants to do with the impeachment of Sec. Mayorkas. The Biden Administration is lawless. The Democrat leader eradicates traditions, rules, norms and precedent. When the Democrats talk about Threats to Democracy™️ — they are talking about themselves."

"Democrats will do anything to avoid having to defend Mayorkas’s record, so Chuck Schumer is trying to break over 200 years of Senate precedent by tabling the impeachment trial & denying the American people the chance to hear the facts," Senator Ted Cruz added. 

In a letter to Leader McConnell last week, more than a dozen Republicans demanded Mayorkas receive a trial.  

"It is imperative that the Senate Republican conference prepare to fully engage our Constitutional duty and hold a trial," they wrote. "According to multiple briefings by your staff, Majority Leader Schumer and Senate Democrats intend to dispense with the articles of impeachment by simply tabling both individually. This is an action rarely contemplated and never taken by the U.S. Senate in the history of our Republic."