WASHINGTON – More than 40 Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Thursday lobbied Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to conduct comprehensive impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Schumer and other Democrats have indicated they would be willing to immediately vote to dismiss the articles of impeachment passed by the House rather than pursue a trial in the Senate. The Republicans who signed the letter urged Schumer not to pursue that option and said Mayorkas must be held accountable.
“In light of the disaster unfolding daily at our southern border and in communities across America, the House of Representatives has formally accused Alejandro Mayorkas of degrading his office,” According to the letter signed by 43 Republican senators“The American people have a right to hear the evidence in a trial before the Senate and the Court of Impeachment.”
Six Republican senators did not sign the letter: Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mitt Romney of Utah and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
A uncomplicated majority of senators would be needed to approve a motion to dismiss the case before trial. Democrats and independents, who usually vote with them, hold a 51-49 majority in the chamber.
The Republicans in the House of Representatives failed in their first attempt to impeach Mayorkas and needed a second vote for approval the articles of impeachment against the Secretary of Homeland Security. No Democrat voted for it.
The two articles of impeachment accuse Mayorkas of an “arbitrary and systematic refusal to obey the law” and a breach of public trust. Democrats say the articles of impeachment are based on political disagreements and not on the threshold of “high crimes and misdemeanors” that would lead to impeachment.
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and 11 Republican impeachment managers had planned to formally introduce the two articles of impeachment to the Senate on Wednesday, which would have forced Schumer to begin the impeachment trial the next day. But at the request of Republican senators, who were concerned about catching their flights home the same day the trial was scheduled to begin, Johnson delayed the delivery.
A spokesman for Johnson also said in a statement Tuesday announcing the delay that the Senate should not drop the charges without a trial.
“To ensure that the Senate has sufficient time to fulfill its constitutional duty, the House of Representatives will transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week,” Johnson’s spokesman wrote in a statement. “There is no reason whatsoever for the Senate to shirk its responsibility to impeach.”
The Republican senators who signed Thursday’s letter are:
- Lindsey Graham from South Carolina
- Mitch McConnell from Kentucky
- John Thune from South Dakota
- John Cornyn from Texas
- Mike Lee from Utah
- Ted Cruz from Texas
- John Kennedy of Louisiana
- John Barrasso from Wyoming
- Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee
- Ted Budd from North Carolina
- Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia
- Tom Cotton from Arkansas
- Mike Crapo from Idaho
- Steve Daines from Montana
- Deb Fischer from Nebraska
- John Hoeven from North Dakota
- Cindy Hyde-Smith from Mississippi
- Jerry Moran from Kansas
- Pete Ricketts from Nebraska
- Michael Rounds from South Dakota
- Marco Rubio from Florida
- Eric Schmitt from Missouri
- Dan Sullivan from Alaska
- Thom Tillis from North Carolina
- Roger Wicker from Mississippi
- Josh Hawley from Missouri
- John Boozman from Arkansas
- Bill Hagerty from Tennessee
- James Risch of Idaho
- Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming
- Tim Scott from South Carolina
- Chuck Grassley from Iowa
- Ron Johnson from Wisconsin
- Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma
- Rick Scott from Florida
- James Lankford from Oklahoma
- Todd Young from Indiana
- Katie Boyd Britt from Alabama
- Joni Ernst from Iowa
- JD Vance from Ohio
- Roger Marshall from Kansas
- Kevin Cramer from North Dakota
- Mike Brown from Indiana
