Senate to begin DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas' impeachment trial
Senators will hold an impeachment trial for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, with Democrats likely to dismiss the case.
WASHINGTON — Senators will open the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday afternoon, but it’s expected to look nothing like the full-blown Senate trials Donald Trump faced in 2020 and 2021.
Senate Democrats, led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, are expected to quickly move to dismiss or table the two impeachment articles, which would require only a simple majority vote. Meanwhile, Republicans want to drag out the process and make it as politically painful as possible for the other party.
There is no scenario in which Mayorkas will be convicted. None of the Senate's 51 Democrats have said they support impeachment, and even some moderate Republicans have expressed openness to tabling the articles after some debate, arguing that Mayorkas' conduct does not rise to the level of impeachment.
Senate President Pro Tem Patty Murray, D-Wash., will preside over the trial. At 1 p.m. ET, she and the 99 other senators will be sworn in as jurors. Both sides were working Tuesday to come to an agreement on a process that could include time for limited debate and votes on Republican-led motions, a Senate source said. But unlike in the Trump trials, which both took longer than two weeks, Democrats could finish the Mayorkas trial as early as Wednesday evening.
“What I hope happens is that there will be an opportunity at least for some discussion once we are sworn in, and how long that is and what that entails is yet to be determined, but I would rather not go straight from swearing everybody in to, boom, we’re going to move to table,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who is skeptical of the impeachment push.
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