Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) fired back at Donald Trump Jr. on Friday for calling out three Senate Democrats who voted to end the impeachment case against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“Your Friday morning reminder that Republicans are full of shit when they complain about the border,” Murphy wrote Friday morning. “They killed the tough, bipartisan border security bill because Trump told them to keep the border a mess because it would help him politically.”
Murphy was responding to Trump Jr. criticizing Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) — who all face tough reelection battles this year — for “doing [President] Biden’s bidding” by voting to kill this week’s Senate trial of Mayorkas.
“Next time Dems like Bob Casey, Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown try to portray themselves as tough on the border, remember that they just did Biden’s bidding by voting to acquit Mayorkas without a trial,” Trump Jr. wrote in a Thursday post on social media platform X. “By taking that vote, they all just endorsed the invasion at our southern border!”
All three lawmakers voted with their party to dismiss two articles of impeachment, avoiding the possibility of having a lengthy trial.
Murphy was part of a bipartisan group of senators — along with Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) — who negotiated a border security bill that passed the Senate, but was effectively killed by former President Trump when it reached the House.
Senate Republicans issued multiple motions to delay Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) move to avoid an impeachment trial. All attempts failed on party-line votes.
Republicans called out Democrats for ignoring the situation at the southern border where Customs and Border Protection recorded 7.5 million illegal crossings since Biden took office.
Democrats argued that Republicans were impeaching Mayorkas over policy disagreements and failed to show any high crimes or misdemeanors that would constitutionally justify just a steep punishment.