Republicans delay DHS Secretary Mayorkas' impeachment trial until next week
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson will delay sending articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate until next week, his spokesman said, as Senate Republicans consider ways to inflict political pain on Democrats, including a threat to bring the upper chamber to a halt.
Johnson, R-La., had planned to transmit the articles to the Senate on Wednesday. But, "to ensure the Senate has adequate time to perform its constitutional duty, the House will transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week," said Taylor Haulsee, a spokesman for Johnson.
Senate Republicans had personally urged Johnson to postpone sending the articles to give senators more time to debate the matter at the beginning of the week rather than late this week, when lawmakers are preparing to fly back to their home states.
"It makes no sense to have them go through all that time and effort to highlight the abuse of this administration, only to have [the articles] come over here and get snuffed out," said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who is close to the speaker and was one of the senators who personally urged him to hold off.
Senate Democrats, who control the chamber, were expected to quickly vote this week to dismiss or table the two Mayorkas impeachment articles and move on to other business. But Republicans have spent this week demanding the Senate hold a full Senate trial focused on Mayorkas' handling of border security.
"There is no reason whatsoever for the Senate to abdicate its responsibility to hold an impeachment trial," Haulsee said.
Some Republicans issued a fresh threat Tuesday to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.: If he doesn't agree to hold a full trial, Republicans could launch a procedural blockade on all Senate business going forward, grinding the chamber to a halt.
Sen. Johnson, noting that the Senate “runs on unanimous consent” — under which all 100 senators must agree to do basic functions like adjourning the chamber — warned: “Moving forward, we may not be providing that consent” if the Senate doesn’t hold a trial.
The impact would be, in short, chaotic.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., also left the door open to a GOP blockade, saying his “personal view here is that there ought to be a real cost for Chuck Schumer.”
After Johnson announced his decision to delay the articles, Schumer said the Senate will be prepared to act quickly. “We’re ready to go whenever they are. We are sticking with our plan,” he said. “We’re going to move this as expeditiously as possible.”
The dayslong delay will give the GOP a few extra days to debate the articles and hammer the other party's dismissal of them.
"I'm very grateful to Speaker Johnson for his bold willingness to delay this," said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who has led GOP calls for a full Senate trial. "We don't want this to come over on the eve of the moment when members might be operating under the influence of jet fuel intoxication. That was precisely the plan, and it's much better for us to do this at the beginning of a legislative week, rather than toward the end."
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., one of the impeachment managers, said that he was "fine" with the delay and that the group is writing opening statements to prepare for the trial. "We’re ready to go, so whenever the speaker says go, we go,” he said.
