This week, the ultra-MAGA House Republican impeachment managers presented their baseless articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate. Since MAGA House Republicans could not present a single shred of evidence whatsoever of high crimes or misdemeanors, the Senate rightfully dismissed the articles, exonerating the Secretary. From the beginning, this impeachment pursuit was nothing but a political stunt and a complete waste of time. MAGA Republicans continue to reject evidence and constitutional scholars to try to score political points, distract from Donald Trump’s crimes, and help him return to the White House in 2024. Now that this baseless impeachment charade is finally over, it’s time for Congress to get back to work, addressing the issues that matter most to Americans across the country.
CNN: “[T]he merits of the case they hoped to bring to the Senate were widely seen as lacking substance.”
Axios: “House GOP claims that Mayorkas, the first Latino and immigrant to hold the job, committed high crimes and misdemeanors never passed muster with constitutional experts.”
The New York Times: “Mr. Mayorkas was never accused of corruption or of any crime other than carrying out immigration policies that Republicans oppose.”
New York Magazine: “But even given the broadest possible definition of ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’ the obedience shown by Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the policies Joe Biden has laid out is far from being an impeachable offense.”
TIME: “Mayorkas has been a top target of Republicans as soon as they took control of the House in 2022. […] But multiple constitutional experts have told TIME that the evidence does not reach the high bar of high crimes and misdemeanors set by the U.S. Constitution.”
The Guardian: “Constitutional scholars, including conservative legal experts, have said the Republicans’ impeachment case is deeply flawed and weakens Congress’s most powerful tool for holding despots and delinquents to account.”
Vox: “But while the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas was designed to cast negative attention on the Biden administration as Trump navigates countless legal scandals of his own, Senate Democrats’ quick dismissal has dulled much of its impact.”
The Washington Post: “But the GOP’s impeachment effort was troubled from the start — in ways that sharply undercut the claim that Democrats are derelict in shrugging off an impeachment trial. Even many Republicans said Mayorkas’s actions weren’t impeachable, and the party wound up lacking complete unity in both chambers in historic ways.”
Frank O. Bowman III, Author of “High Crimes & Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump,” MSNBC (Opinion): “What House Republicans gave the Senate instead — and then only after two tries marked by rebellion within their own ranks — was the Mayorkas impeachment, a piece of performative trivia, constitutionally groundless and utterly unworthy of any respect whatsoever.”
Steve Benen, MSNBC (Opinion): “First, at no point in recent months have GOP lawmakers in either chamber treated this process with even a hint of seriousness. The entire impeachment ordeal was a cheap stunt, and Senate Republicans all but admitted that they wanted a trial as part of an election-season public-relations gambit.”