Senate kills first of two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
Source: CNN
The Senate killed the first article of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday as the historic trial of the Cabinet secretary got underway.
The article of impeachment killed by the Senate was for willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law. Mayorkas still faces a second article for breach of public trust.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer opened the proceedings by offering a time agreement to Republicans that would have allowed a certain amount of floor debate and votes on trial resolutions and points of order before an eventual vote to dismiss the case.
Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri objected, saying he would not agree to a proposal that would conclude with an unprecedented step in US history of dismissing an impeachment case without a trial. Many Republicans wanted an agreement because it would have allowed them to make speeches on the floor about why they think a full trial should take place and other points. Without it, they will not be allowed to speak on the floor unless they get unanimous consent except in the form of points of order that would be read allowed by the presiding officer.
Schumer then made a motion to table or kill the first impeachment article because it does not allege conduct that rises to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor as required in the Constitution. After several rounds of procedural votes, the Senate passed that motion 51 to 48 with one voting present, killing the first article of impeachment.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/17/politics/senate-mayorkas-impeachment-articles/index.html
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Attilatheblond
(2,196 posts)Lovie777
(12,313 posts)what are they good for................................
absolutely nothing.
democratsruletheday
(504 posts)it's what they do, it's who they are. Even McConell said a week ago this was going nowhere. Fuckin' clowns.
BumRushDaShow
(129,298 posts)Hopefully they are almost done.
mahina
(17,686 posts)Mahalo.
BumRushDaShow
(129,298 posts)including to -
-adjourn the trial until the end of the month
-adjourn the trial until the first week of May
-adjourn the trial until November 6
-go into a closed door session to discuss (a pile of these)
-go into Executive session
-to table each of Schumer's 2 motions to declare the Articles "unconstitutional"
But what was notable was that I think for the 2nd Article, Murkowski voted "present" rather than vote for/against it being "unconstitutional" (missed if she did that for the 1st Article).
mahina
(17,686 posts)They are consistent at least. I thought they must have the votes because they moved it along. Thanks to Murkowski too!
BumRushDaShow
(129,298 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,298 posts)iluvtennis
(19,868 posts)LetMyPeopleVote
(145,477 posts)Maxheader
(4,373 posts)try to do unto the liberals like they feel the liberals have done unto them. fuckin hillbilly morons....
LetMyPeopleVote
(145,477 posts)AllaN01Bear
(18,325 posts)Oopsie Daisy
(2,672 posts)* but I feared that we might not have the votes to quickly extinguish this. I won't name-names, for obvious reasons.
keopeli
(3,524 posts)with Clinton. They politicized impeachment. Today, Democrats buried any future impeachment UNLESS the Senate is held by the party opposing the President. In that case, show trials may now become the norm. While the GQP is fully to blame for this travesty, the Dems have played their partisan part today. They refused to hold a 'show trial', basically ensuring that future 'show trials' WILL be held when the opposing party controls the senate AND that legitimate impeachment proceedings will NOT occur is the Presidents' party is in control of the Senate.
It is a sad day for the Constitution, as Moscow Mitch said, but the blame lies on his and his parties trivializing of the process, not on the Democrats.
God forbid we have another Trump or criminal president whose party runs the Senate because there is NO way to remove the SOB. (Not that there was. The bar for impeachment is so high, it has never actually been reached and probably never will.)
markodochartaigh
(1,141 posts)The Democratic leadership has shown no willingness to engage in these types of baseless, grandstanding show trials which make a kangaroo court of the legislative bodies. Even after the bizarre show trial of Bill Clinton's penis and the incessant pillorying of Hillary, the Democratic party did not go after Republican politicians. I think that there is no reason to assume that there is any kind of equivalence here. Making politics personal is more characteristic of authoritarianism and authoritarianism in the US is, by far, more characteristic of the Republican party and their base.
Also, "the bar for impeachment is so high, it has never actually been reached", Nixon was told that if he didn't resign that there were the votes to impeach him.
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/Decoder/2014/0807/Richard-Nixon-s-resignation-the-day-before-a-moment-of-truth