Democrats appear to have the votes needed to dismiss an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, but Republicans plan to make that dismissal as painful as possible with a series of maneuvers designed to slow down business on the Senate floor.
The chamber will receive the two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, who stands accused of willfully ignoring federal immigration law, sometime next week. As of now, the tentative plan is for House managers to walk them over on Tuesday, according to three GOP senators briefed on the matter.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will swear senators in as jurors for what ordinarily would be a trial of Mayorkas, but he is widely expected to move to table the articles, which Democrats have dismissed as politically motivated.
Such a tactic would allow Democrats to avoid a drawn-out spectacle that would draw attention to the crisis at the southern border, an issue plaguing swing state Democrats up for election in November. And they appear to have the votes. Democrat Jon Tester (MT) has waffled on whether he would vote to table, but a handful of GOP senators have either signaled a willingness to or declined to say.
Asked about a “hypothetical” motion to table, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said, “Hypothetically, let’s get done with this.”
However, Senate conservatives are weighing what one Senate GOP staffer called a “death by a million paper cuts” approach to retaliation that delays the proceedings or even slows floor business in the weeks that follow.
Senate Republicans have reacted with outrage at the idea of skipping a trial, a move that would be unprecedented in the history of the Senate. Democrats counter that Mayorkas was impeached over a policy disagreement rather than “high crimes and misdemeanors,” but conservatives plan to exact a price for what they say is an abrogation of Schumer’s constitutional duties.
Those Republicans, led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), are proposing 15 points of order they would raise once jurors are sworn in, according to three sources. They have also asked leadership to give a recorded vote on organizing resolutions that would convene a trial, either on the Senate floor or through a select committee, according to a senior Senate GOP aide.
It will be up to Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who is presiding over the trial as president pro tem of the Senate, whether she recognizes the motions, which stretch out the proceedings by raising possible rules violations.
Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), for example, plans to accuse Democrats of violating impeachment rules if Schumer does not issue Mayorkas a summons that requests his written response to the charges. Schumer’s office did not respond to an inquiry over whether he, in fact, plans to skip the summons.
Murray is expected to allow at least some points of order, which are being negotiated at the staff leadership level, according to three sources. But she will eventually declare them “dilatory” and refuse to recognize the senators raising them.
“I don’t think they’ll do that right out of the gate,” said Braun, “but I don’t think they’ll let it go that long.”
The swift dismissal of the trial underscores the limits of conservatives’ power in a chamber Democrats control with a bare 51-49 majority. But Republicans have been discussing other ways to retaliate, including throwing up a series of legislative roadblocks unrelated to the proceedings.
The Senate operates by unanimous consent, meaning a single senator can grind floor business to a halt. That could involve objecting to floor votes, but there are other maneuvers available to members. The plan is fluid at this point, according to several GOP senators, but Republicans have discussed strategy at each of their lunches this week.
“If Schumer enacts this ‘nuclear option’ on impeachment, I think anything’s on the table,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI).
Already, Lee has taken several preemptive steps. He refused to allow committees to meet in the afternoon on Tuesday, for example, and could block Schumer’s ability to transition from legislative session to executive session, a move that would prevent smooth consideration of nominees.
The threat of such obstacles could give conservatives leverage when it comes to how many points of order they are eventually granted, but so far, Senate Democratic leadership has not provided a “sufficient” counteroffer, according to the senior aide.
The 15 votes floated matches the number given during the first impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, the aide noted.
Republicans’ strategy sessions, in particular two Senate lunches held on Tuesday, led members to ask Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to delay transmitting the articles until next week. House Republicans originally planned to walk them over on Wednesday, timed to Mayorkas’s appearance on Capitol Hill for two budget hearings.
The move would have been another dig at Mayorkas, who has defended his record as Biden’s border chief, but it would have also given Schumer the opportunity to quash the trial as senators prepared to fly back to their home states for the weekend.
Johnson ultimately agreed to delay their transmission.
“Members will be less inclined to operate under jet fume intoxication on a Monday than they would on a Thursday,” Lee said at a press conference on Tuesday.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Senate GOP Conference is broadly supportive of the efforts to draw out the trial, viewing it as a worthwhile attempt to bring more publicity to Biden’s handling of the border. But more institutionally minded Republicans have resisted the idea of grinding floor business to a halt over it.
“It’s the same thing for the House. If someone in the House can tell me how their decisions produce a positive outcome, count me in. But if this is just a ‘Hold my beer, watch this, hope something good happens’ — that’s not how I operate,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), an adviser to Senate leadership.
