Two months later, Mayorkas’ impeachment proceedings are complete. The Senate quickly began the trial Wednesday afternoon, shortly after finally receiving two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas from the House.
It was predictable that the Senate, controlled by Democrats, would do this. But Republicans hope it will, at the very least, make Democrats look bad — as if they’re unwilling to hold accountable a man Republicans accuse of being responsible for the chaotic border.
And will this make Democrats look bad?
There is no doubt that the border poses a major handicap for President Biden. Mayorkas is also not a particularly sympathetic character; a recent poll showed that independents dislike him by a margin of 2 to 1.
But the Republican Party’s impeachment efforts were disrupted from the start — in a way that significantly undermined the claim that Democrats are careless in ignoring an impeachment trial. Even many Republicans said Mayorkas’ actions were not accountable and the party was left without complete unity in both chambers in historic fashion.
There was, of course, the remarkable initial vote in which the Republican-controlled House failed to impeach Mayorkas. Three House Republicans voted against it, and a Democrat the GOP didn’t expect to be there returned, leaving the GOP one vote short. The GOP finally succeeded a week later, by one vote.
Fast forward to Wednesday, and the GOP was once again unable to keep its members unified. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) decided to vote on whether the articles against Mayorkas were unconstitutional – essentially that they were not high crimes or misdemeanors, according to to the standards required by the Constitution. On the first article, on the alleged “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law”, Senator Lisa Murkowski (Republican of Alaska) voted “present”.
This appears to be the first time in modern history that a senator from the impeachment party did not vote with the party against dismissing the charges. Republican senators were united in opposing such a motion during Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1999 — even though 10 senators later voted to acquit Clinton — and Democratic senators were also united in opposing one. motion to reject Donald Trump’s candidacy after January. 6 indictment charges three years ago.
Likewise, this is the first time that all senators from the presidential party have voted in favor of dismissing the accusations. Only one Democrat voted against dismissing Clinton’s charges in 1999, and five Republicans voted against dismissing Trump’s charges in 2021.
The handful of defections from the GOP show just how much concern there was about what their party was doing. Several Republican senators who voted against dismissing the charges nonetheless called the whole thing a waste of time. They said the House failed to show that Mayorkas actually did anything imputable. They said Mayorkas was simply carrying out administration policy.
One called it “the stupidest exercise and use of time.” Another said the House GOP was “targeting a member of the administration without doing their homework.” A third said the House had “nothing.”
Perhaps these senators can justify their vote against dismissing the charges by arguing that the Senate should hold a real trial if the House impeaches. But it is also clear that such a trial could have resulted in a remarkable number of defections from the side of the accusing party – if Republican senators had stuck to their past comments about Mayorkas.
Of course, the intricacies of Congress – and whether an alleged offense is technically attributable or merely bad – do not generally concern the American people. Republicans will therefore see this as proof that Democrats do not take the border seriously and hope that the American people will care.
What we can say right now is that it’s not clear that Americans care or that they can be made to care that much. That poll mentioned above, conducted by The Economist and YouGov shortly after Mayorkas’ impeachment, showed Americans approving of him 43% to 25%, a fairly large margin. And as mentioned, the poll also showed Mayorkas to be unpopular.
But it also showed that 4 in 10 Americans didn’t even have an opinion on him — showing how few people were tuning in to any of this. And we don’t have any other interesting polls on this, largely because they don’t seem to have caught on as a story.
In short, it’s now up to Republicans to get the American people excited about an issue that even their members of Congress weren’t terribly excited about.
washingtonpost
