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McConnell Pushes for a Mayorkas Impeachment Trial

Katie Pavlich
Katie Pavlich  |  April 16, 2024 11:45 AM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is calling on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to respect precedent by holding an impeachment trial for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. 

“This afternoon, the Senate will be called – for just the nineteenth time in our history – to rule on the impeachment of a senior official of our government. It’s a responsibility to be taken seriously. As I said the last time the Senate convened as a court of impeachment, it’s a power Congress must not exercise frivolously," McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday morning. “Today, the Senate will hear House managers charge Secretary Mayorkas with serious dereliction of duty – with a systematic refusal to enforce our nation’s immigration laws, and with lying to Congress about the extent of the border crisis that unfolded on the Biden Administration’s watch. The facts of this crisis are well known."

"Never before has the Senate agreed to a motion to table articles of impeachment. Not for an officer of either party. Not once. Instead, every single time that we’ve been called upon to render judgment, we’ve done so. We’ve convened a trial, or – in accordance with Rule Eleven of the Impeachment Rules agreed to in 1935 – we’ve appointed a trial committee to dig into the facts and make a recommendation," he continued. “It would be beneath the Senate’s dignity to shrug off our clear responsibility and fail to give the charges we’ll hear today the thorough consideration they deserve."

“I will strenuously oppose any effort to table the articles of impeachment and avoid looking the Biden Administration’s border crisis squarely in the face,” McConnell concluded. 

For weeks more than two dozen Republican Senators have been pushing Senate leadership to hold a trial.

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On Monday House Speaker Mike Johnson officially transferred the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas from the lower chamber to the Senate for consideration.