“By voting unanimously to bypass their constitutional responsibility, every single Senate Democrat has issued their full endorsement of the Biden Administration’s dangerous open border policies,” House GOP leadership responded in a statement.
The Senate voted along party lines Wednesday to dismiss all impeachment charges House Republicans brought against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The Democrat-led Senate voted 51-49 to adjourn the impeachment trial over the DHS chief’s refusal to execute his duties to secure the open U.S. border.
BREAKING: Along party lines, the US Senate has just voted to dismiss all impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The first article was dismissed, followed by the second.
NOTE: The swift decision came after Senate Democrats unified to reject… pic.twitter.com/mtYVP1xe1W
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) April 17, 2024
The Department of Homeland Security praised the dismissal, claiming the Senate vote “proves definitively that there was no evidence or Constitutional grounds to justify impeachment.”
“It’s time for Congressional Republicans to support the Department’s vital mission instead of wasting time playing political games and standing in the way of commonsense, bipartisan border reforms,” DHS spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement.
The Biden administration hailed the Democrats for dismissing the charges.
“Once and for all, the Senate has rightly voted down this baseless impeachment that even conservative legal scholars said was unconstitutional,” spokesperson Ian Sams said.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.) released a statement on behalf of his caucus claiming the vote proves Democrats essentially endorse Biden’s open border policies carried out by Mayorkas.
“By voting unanimously to bypass their constitutional responsibility, every single Senate Democrat has issued their full endorsement of the Biden Administration’s dangerous open border policies,” Johnson and his leadership team wrote.
My joint statement with @SteveScalise, @GOPMajorityWhip, and @RepStefanik on Senate ignoring its constitutional duty to hold Mayorkas impeachment trial:
By voting unanimously to bypass their constitutional responsibility, every single Senate Democrat has issued their full…
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) April 17, 2024
“The American people will hold Senate Democrats accountable for this shameful display,” the statement continued.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) likewise condemned the vote to dismiss the charges against Mayorkas, claiming the Senate body was ignoring the will of the House.
“We’ve set a very unfortunate precedent here which means that the Senate can ignore, in effect, the House’s impeachment,” McConnell said. “It doesn’t make any difference whether our friends on the other side thought he should have been impeached or not: He was.”
Mitch McConnell: “It’s not a proud day in the history of the Senate.” pic.twitter.com/Il6hegQOiK
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 17, 2024
“And by doing what we just did, we have, in effect, ignored the directions of the House, which were to have a trial,” he continued. “We had no evidence, no procedure. This is a day — it’s not a proud day in the history of the Senate.”
