Lafayette Reporter

WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats have blocked Sen. John Kennedy's attempts to halt the effective dismissal of two impeachment articles against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas without a full Senate trial. Sen. Chuck Schumer argued that no high crime or misdemeanor had been charged, justifying the dismissal.

Kennedy, however, pointed out that the House of Representatives impeached Mayorkas for lying to Congress, which is a federal felony. He expressed his concerns by stating, “even though lying to the United States Congress is a felony, under the precedent that the majority leader and our Democratic colleagues established, it’s not a high crime [or] misdemeanor” in the eyes of Senate Democrats. Kennedy further questioned the Democrats' stance, wondering, “What do you have to do to get impeached now? I mean, a felony is not sufficient [according to Democrats]. What’s above a felony?”

The actions of the Democrats have raised concerns about creating a new loophole for excusing officials for impeachable offenses. Kennedy made three motions to prevent Senate Democrats from ending the impeachment proceedings without allowing House impeachment managers to present their evidence or giving Mayorkas the chance to defend himself.

Kennedy lamented the situation, stating, “I predicted that Sen. Schumer—for the first time in Senate history—was going to bury the articles of impeachment against a sitting official without a full trial, and he did. Democrats are destroying the Senate to keep Americans from seeing the evidence of how royally the Biden administration has screwed up our southern border—but the American people know a whitewash when they see it.”

Highlighting the consequences of the decision, Kennedy emphasized, “Americans can’t escape the evidence of the crime, drugs, human trafficking and suffering surging through the open border and into their neighborhoods and families.”