DANGER - GOP Impeachment Game

Why Mayorkas matters

As Republicans push their impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alexander Mayorkas, there is more afoot… see below for what is really happening. ⬇️

Just after 1 am this morning, the Republican-controlled House Homeland Security Committee voted to move their efforts to impeach Mayorkas to a full House floor vote.

That vote could come to the floor as soon as next week. “We are going to have to pass that,” GOP Majority Whip Tom Emmer told CNN of the impeachment measure. “I mean, it’s pretty egregious what he’s done.”

This is a very bad thing for democracy. With significant implications not just in the present, but the future as well.

Unprecedented

For starters: No Cabinet secretary has been impeached for almost 150 years. In fact, only one Cabinet official has EVER been impeached before: William Belknap, the Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant.

As NBC reported:

This was the Gilded Age, and Belknap was known for “extravagant Washington parties,” which raised questions, seeing as he was on a government salary.

The source of Belknap’s wealth was a kickback scheme orchestrated by his first wife, in which she helped businessman Caleb Marsh get an appointment to a trading post in Oklahoma. The man in that job, John Evans, struck a deal with Marsh — Evans would get to keep his lucrative job, but he'd provide $12,000 annually in payments, split evenly between Marsh and the Belknaps.

Clymer’s committee had Marsh on the record explaining the situation. After he entered evidence into the record, Clymer moved for a vote on impeachment.

So, he was caught red-handed! And even so, while the House voted to impeach Belknap, he was not convicted and removed by the Senate!

The reason that impeachment of a Cabinet official is SO rare is that the bar for it — as laid out in the Constitution — is SO high.

Here’s how Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution reads:

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Which is a) pretty clear and b) pretty serious. Treason! Bribery!

So, what, exactly are Republicans alleging that Mayorkas has done? Here’s Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green of Tennessee:

“He has willfully and systemically refused to comply with immigration laws enacted by Congress. He has breached the public trust by knowingly making false statements to Congress and the American people, and obstructing congressional oversight of his department.”

Here’s the thing: What Republicans really don’t like about Mayorkas is that he is enforcing border policies put in place by the Biden administration that they don’t agree with.

Which is absolutely their right!

And, there’s no question that Biden’s policies regarding the border have been less than ideal – no better than Trump, who has effectively kiboshed the bipartisan Senate attempt on an immigration solution. (This long read from the New York Times does a very good job of explaining where Biden went wrong on immigration.)

But, there is a VERY big difference between not liking the policies of an administration of another party and trying to get rid of a Cabinet official charged with implementing those policies.

Remember that the bar for impeachment — from the Constitution! — is treason, bribery or “high crimes and misdemeanors.” While that last phrase is decidedly vague, it’s very hard to imagine how Mayorkas, who is simply carrying out policies of the broader Biden Administration, has somehow wandered into that sort of violation.

Now, I am not a lawyer. (Sorry Mom!) But you know who agrees with me? Lots of lawyers!

Three key opinions

Jonathan Turley, who has been one of the few legal experts to take Donald Trump’s side in his various impeachment cases, insists there is no there there when it comes to Mayorkas.

“There is also no current evidence that he is corrupt or committed an impeachable offense,” Turley wrote of Mayorkas earlier this month. “He can be legitimately accused of effectuating an open border policy, but that is a disagreement on policy that is traced to the President.”

Alan Dershowitz, who represented Trump in his first impeachment, agrees. Wrote Dershowitz on Tuesday in The Hill:

Whatever else Mayorkas may or may not have done, he has not committed bribery, treason, or high crimes and misdemeanors. Indeed, most Republicans do not even claim that his actions or inactions meet these daunting constitutional standards, but they are prepared to apply a double standard based on partisan considerations. 

Hell, even the Wall Street Journal editorial board — not exactly a fountain of liberalism, as it is owned by the same owner as Fox News — thinks this is a bad idea! They write:

As much as we share the frustration with the Biden border mess, impeaching Mr. Mayorkas won’t change enforcement policy and is a bad precedent that will open the gates to more cabinet impeachments by both parties.

Yes! This! We are on the verge of opening up a Pandora’s box that will not — given our partisan times — ever close again.

If Mayorkas can be impeached for, quite literally doing his job there is no Cabinet official who will be immune.

We don’t need to wonder about this! We have hard evidence. When I started as a political reporter in the late 1990s, impeachment of a president was UNHEARD of. But, starting with Bill Clinton, every president since has seen articles of impeachment introduced against him by members of the opposite party. Every one!

Bottom line

What is happening with Mayorkas is the conflation of policy disagreements with some sort of unlawful conduct. Those are NOT the same thing. And defining impeachment downward is not the sort of thing you can just take back.

It remains to be seen whether House Republicans can rally their tiny majority behind this effort. Even if they do and it passes the House, it will, obviously, be DOA in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

But, actions have consequences. And if House Republicans take this action, it’s going to make our already-awful politics that much worse. Which means they will probably do it.

2024 is critical to democracy.

I am more determined than ever to shine a light in the darkest corridors of power, as I’ve done here. Your support of independent journalism is critical. Today, I am asking you to join me.

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