House Republicans put themselves through a lot to send articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejando Mayorkas by a one-vote margin, on their second try.
It will sting our Sixth District congressman, Ben Cline, one of the 11 House impeachment managers appointed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, when the Senate shrugs.
“Everyone in the Senate views the Mayorkas impeachment as a stunt. We don’t view it as serious, and we are going to dispatch of it quickly,” U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told reporters this week.
It’s viewed by senators, on both sides of the aisle, it should be noted, as a “stunt” because that’s precisely what it is.
On the one hand, the House GOP is using the impeachment process to prosecute somebody over a policy disagreement with the Biden administration over southern border security.
And then on the other, these same Republicans are refusing to take action on a bipartisan Senate deal that would provide billions of dollars toward the enforcement of border-security measures that Republicans claim they want prioritized.
Talk out of both sides of your mouth much there, fellas?
“Just to explain how idiotic this is, as the House was proceeding by fits and starts on the Mayorkas impeachment, and they fell short last week, there were barely enough votes for it in the House to move forward, we were negotiating a bipartisan deal on border security, and who did the Republicans in the Senate insist be in the room to negotiate to deal? Secretary Mayorkas,” Kaine said.
“Why?” Kaine then asked, rhetorically. “Because they have confidence in him, because they know that if you’re going to come up with better policies, you need somebody in the room who has lived this for years and can explain, with a policy change, what would be the good and the bad, what would be the risks and the benefits.”
The definition of political stunt follows.
“So when the Senate Republicans were insisting that Secretary Mayorkas be there because they value what he brought to the table, when he helped find a negotiated resolution that both Democrats and Republicans, that both immigration rights activists like the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the Border Patrol Union, could accept, he was demonstrating the value of his service, at the same time as the Republicans in the House were stumbling over the over themselves to impeach him,” Kaine said.
“We’re not going to spend much time on it in the Senate. We need to focus on the appropriations bill,” Kaine said.
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Chris Graham
