April 17 (UPI) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday pushed for the 100-member body to dismiss the charges brought by the Republican-led House against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as his trial got underway.
On Wednesday, Schumer had called the Mayoraks charges “nakedly partisan” as members of the Senate were ready to be sworn in at about 1 p.m. EDT as jurors for the impeachment trial.
The House on Tuesday officially delivered the impeachment articles to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where it is believed there is enough votes to easily dismiss the House charges against Mayorkas with little fanfare.
“As they work on impeachment, I’m working on the mission of the Department of Homeland Security,” Mayorkas said Wednesday on the CBS Mornings show.
In a letter last week to Schumer, 43 GOP senators had demanded a trial be held by pointing to historical precedent.
A trial could last up to four hours, former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, said Wednesday afternoon on MSNBC as proceedings were beginning.
Schumer said that its his intent to seek an agreement with his Senate colleagues for time to debate that will allow Republicans to offer a vote on trial resolutions, points of order and then he says he will move to dismiss the charges.
“Let’s not kid ourselves about what’s going on today,” he said. “The impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas has noting to do with crimes and misdemeanors and everything to do with helping Donald Trump on the campaign trail.”
Up until now, Schumer only had indicated his intent to deal with the Mayorkas trial “expeditiously,” which changed Wednesday with the announcement of his move to dismiss outright.
“To validate this gross abuse by the House would be a grave mistake and could set a dangerous precedent for the future,” Schumer said.
“For the sake of the Senate’s integrity, and to protect impeachment for those rare cases [in which] we truly need it, senators should dismiss today’s charges,” the New York Democrat said.
The senate’s outgoing Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., previously had stated that he believed it would be a “mistake” for the Senate not to move forward with its constitutional duty to have a full trial on Mayorkas.
On Wednesday ahead of Senate business, House Speaker Mike Johnson took to social media to say that, if the Senate “fails to hold a trial, it is an endorsement of Biden’s border catastrophe.”
Earlier this year, a bipartisan immigration agreement died in the Senate after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump voiced his opposition to it, causing fellow GOP lawmakers to fall in line and oppose it, too.
Ahead of the Senate trial, Louisiana’s Republican Sen. John Kennedy told reporters in the Capitol that President Joe Biden and others “don’t want to hold a trial for political reasons,” he said.
However, the White House has no role in the Senate impeachment attempt and reports say President Biden hasn’t even reached out to moderate Republicans in any way on the issue.
