Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) denounced the House vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as a “sham” and an “embarrassment” for House Republicans, declaring they have reached “a new low.”
“The one and only reason for this impeachment is for Speaker Johnson to further appease Donald Trump,” Schumer said after the House voted Tuesday evening along party lines, 214-213, to impeach Mayorkas on the charges of refusing to enforce immigration law and breaching the public trust.
But Schumer said the evidence presented by the House falls well short of showing Mayorkas committed high crimes or misdemeanors, the constitutional standard.
“House Republicans failed to produce any evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has committed any crime,” the New York Democrat said.
“House Republicans failed to show he has violated the Constitution. House Republicans failed to present evidence of anything resembling an impeachable offense,” he added. “This is a new low for House Republicans.”
Schumer has declined to say how the Senate would handle impeachment charges passed by the House.
Senators in both parties say the House charges against Mayorkas won’t get close to the 67 votes needed in the Senate to convict Mayorkas and remove him from office.
Schumer could schedule a vote on a motion to dismiss the charges, which would require only a simple majority to pass.
Or the Democratic leader could refer the matter to a special evidentiary committee, which is what the Senate did the last time it considered the impeachment of a federal officeholder below the level of president, when it handled charges against Louisiana judge Thomas Porteous in 2010.
If Mayorkas’s impeachment is referred to a special committee, it likely wouldn’t reach the Senate floor for a vote before the November election.