Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer on Wednesday laid out Democrats’ plans to quickly dispose of the impeachment articles against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as early as later in the day.
Just hours before Mr. Mayorkas’ Senate trial was set to commence at 1 p.m., Mr. Schumer offered Republicans limited debate time but signaled Democrats have the votes to shut down the process and dismiss the charges without a full trial.
“To accommodate the wishes of our Republican Senate colleagues, I will seek an agreement for a period of debate time that would allow Republicans to offer a vote on trial resolutions, allow for Republicans to offer points of order and then move to dismiss,” the New York Democrat said in remarks on the Senate floor.
Republicans would need to sign off on the debate plan with unanimous consent. As an incentive, Mr. Schumer offered votes on motions that the GOP could use to put Democrats on record about moving to trial or creating an impeachment committee.
Mr. Schumer called the two articles against Mr. Mayorkas, which are related to his handling of illegal immigration at the southern border, “beneath the dignity of the Senate to entertain this nakedly partisan exercise.”
He added, “Impeachment should never, ever be used to settle policy disagreements that would set a disastrous precedent for the Congress and could throw our system of checks and balances into endless cycles of chaos.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said not holding a proper trial would be a precedent-setting move that Democrats would come to regret.
“Under the Constitution and the rules of impeachment, it is our job of this body to consider the articles of impeachment brought before us and to render judgment,” he said. “Tabling would be declining to discharge our duties as jurors. It would mean running both from our fundamental responsibility and from the glaring truth of the record-breaking crisis at our southern border.”
All Senate Democrats are expected to support disposing of the articles without a full trial. One Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, has signaled he’ll side with the Democrats.
Conservative senators are threatening to withhold future bipartisan cooperation that the Senate requires to conduct much of its daily business to protest Democrats’ derailment of the trail.
The first sitting Cabinet secretary in history to be impeached, Mr. Mayorkas is accused by the House of willfully subverting immigration-enforcement laws and breaching the public trust by lying to Congress and the public about the border and efforts to control it.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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