Two months later, Mayorkas’ impeachment was invalidated. The Senate quickly began the trial Wednesday afternoon, shortly after finally receiving a pair of articles of impeachment against him from the House.
It was predictable that the Democratic-controlled Senate would do this. But Republicans hope the bill will at least make Democrats look bad — as if Republicans aren’t interested in holding accountable the people they say are responsible for the chaotic border. .
And will it make the Democratic Party look bad?
There is no doubt that the border issue is a major responsibility for President Biden. Mayorkas is also not a sympathetic character. Recent polls showed independents dislike him by a 2-to-1 margin.
However, the Republican impeachment effort has been at a standstill since the beginning, and the move significantly undermines the Democratic Party’s claim that it is ignoring the impeachment trial. Even many Republicans said Mr. Mayorkas’ actions did not merit impeachment, leaving the party in historic fashion without full unity in both chambers.
Of course, the notable result was that the Republican-controlled House somehow failed to impeach Mr. Mayorkas in the first vote. Three House Republicans voted against the bill, and a Democratic lawmaker who Republicans had not expected to attend returned, leaving Republicans with a one-vote lead. Republicans ultimately won by a one-vote margin a week later.
Fast forward to Wednesday, and the Republican Party once again failed to keep its members together. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D.N.Y.) moved to vote on whether the articles against Mayorkas are unconstitutional — essentially, they are under the Constitution’s high crimes and misdemeanors law. That means it doesn’t meet the standards. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted “present” on the first provision, Mayorkas’ alleged “deliberate and systematic refusal to comply with the law.”
This appears to be the first time in modern history that senators from the impeaching party did not vote against impeachment. During Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1999, Republican senators united in opposing such a motion, and Democratic senators also united, even though 10 later voted to acquit Clinton. and opposed a motion to remove President Donald Trump from office after his impeachment in January. Three years ago, there were six impeachment charges.
Similarly, this is the first time that all senators from the president’s party have voted to dismiss the charges. In 1999, one Democrat voted against dismissing the charges against Clinton, and in 2021, five Republicans voted against dismissing the charges against Trump.
A small number of Republican defectors underestimate how concerned they were about what their party was doing. Nevertheless, several Republican senators who voted against dismissing the charges had previously branded the whole thing a waste of time. They said the House has not shown that Mr. Mayorkas actually committed any impeachable conduct. They argued that Mr. Mayorkas was essentially just carrying out the administration’s policies.
One person called it “the worst and stupidest way to practice and use your time.” Another official said House Republicans were “targeting members of the administration without doing their homework.” A third said there was “nothing” in the House.
These senators could likely justify their vote against dismissing the charges by arguing that if the House impeaches, the Senate should hold an actual trial. But it’s also clear that if Republican senators had remained true to their past statements about Mr. Mayorkas, such a trial could have resulted in a surprising number of defectors on the impeachment side.
Of course, the complexities of Congress, and whether the alleged crime is technically impeachable or whether impeachment is warranted. bad — of little interest to the American public in general. Republicans will therefore point to this as evidence that Democrats are not taking the border issue seriously and hope that Americans will take an interest in it.
All I can say at this point is that it’s not clear that Americans care that much, or that they can be made to care that much. The above poll, conducted by The Economist and YouGov shortly after Mr. Mayorkas’s impeachment, found that the American public’s approval rating was 43% to 25%, a fairly wide disparity. And, as mentioned above, polls also showed Mayorkas to be unpopular.
But it also became clear that 4 out of 10 Americans have no opinion of him. This reflects how few people were paying attention to this whole incident. And there are no other good polls on the subject. The main reason is that this doesn’t seem to be a part of the story.
In short, it’s now up to Republicans to get Americans excited about something that even members of Congress have shown less enthusiasm for.
