Senators are set to be sworn in as jurors at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday to begin consideration of the House-passed articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a process that Republicans have warned that their Democratic colleagues will try to quickly end.
House impeachment managers officially delivered the articles of impeachment, which passed the lower chamber in February, to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Tuesday on the Senate floor.
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U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is sworn in before testifying to the House Homeland Security Committee about the Biden Administration’s FY2025 budget request in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill on April 16, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)
The long-awaited delivery set into motion a procedure in the Senate, requiring that lawmakers be sworn in as jurors the following day to address the articles.
However, Republicans have spent the last few weeks speculating that their Democratic counterparts will look to off-ramp the impeachment trial before arguments begin. This was confirmed by Schumer on the Senate floor on Wednesday morning, with the majority leader saying in remarks, “For the sake of the Senate’s integrity, and to protect impeachment for those rare cases we truly need it, senators should dismiss today’s charges.”
Several Democratic senators have voiced support for dismissing the articles in the lead up to the trial’s consideration, including Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in a recent speech on the chamber floor.
Schumer had previously stated his plans to “expeditiously” deal with the impeachment trial proceedings, without indicating the specific route the caucus was planning to take.
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Impeachment articles were delivered to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday for DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas. (Getty Images)
Republicans have expressed outrage at the likely refusal of their colleagues to allow a full impeachment trial against Mayorkas to play out. They have even threatened to shut down the Senate by making constant objections to requests for unanimous consent on regular business if a trial isn’t seen all the way through.
At a press conference following the article delivery on Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, previewed that “we’re going to see Chuck Schumer throw out 200 years of history [and] ignore the Constitution,” referencing the fact that an impeachment trial has never been tabled by the Senate.
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If Democrats motion to table an impeachment trial into DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in the Senate, 5 vulnerable lawmakers, Sens. Bob Casey, Sherrod Brown, Jacky Rosen, Tammy Baldwin, Jon Tester, could determine the outcome. (Getty Images)
“He does not want these [House impeachment] managers to present the evidence of the people dying because of their policies,” he added.
Several vulnerable Democratic senators were expected to be the deciding factors on whether a trial was allowed to play out. But in recent days, multiple Democrats in highly competitive races in battleground states have revealed they want to see the trial dismissed.
Sen. Bob Casey, Jr., D-Pa., leaves the Capitol after a vote on Tuesday, April 18, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Casey expressed his opinion for the first time on Tuesday, telling CNN, “I think we should move on and get to work on a bipartisan border security deal.”
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There have also been multiple Republicans whose planned votes were considered a mystery. Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, are concerns on the right, despite the conference being largely united. This unity was evidenced by 43 Republicans signing onto a letter last week calling on Schumer to allow the trial to be seen all the way through.
With a narrow split in the upper chamber, agreement among the parties can be easily disrupted by just a few senators. Democrats hold the majority with just 51-49 over Republicans.