Republicans' Latest Impeachment Target Is Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Myorkas
This week's Republican House of Representatives snipe hunt is in pursuit of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. On Sunday, the House Republicans filed articles of impeachment against Mayorkas. The House Homeland Security Committee will hold hearings on the articles on Tuesday in what I am sure will be a dignified and judicious proceeding, as most of the House committee hearings have been with the GOP in charge, what with its membership including Clay Higgins from Louisiana and the inevitable Marjorie Taylor Greene. From Politico:
That would allow the House to vote on impeachment as soon as the week of Feb. 5, depending on absences and if Republicans can shore up a swath of their undecided colleagues. If the resolution passes the House it would amount to a historic, rare step — a Cabinet official hasn’t been impeached since Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 — but one that is all but guaranteed to end without a conviction in the Senate.
The impeachment resolution is the culmination of a monthslong investigation into Mayorkas that at times last year appeared to have stalled as Republicans shifted their focus toward investigating President Joe Biden. Republicans held two impeachment-related hearings earlier this month as they tried to build the case for an impeachment vote on Mayorkas.
Snipe! Snipe! Over there! No, wait, over there!
Make no mistake. They can gussy it up like a pig at the Easter Parade, but this is just another tactic in the former president*'s attempt to ride the immigration issue into another chance to banjax the country, this time beyond repair.
“In the Committee’s impeachment hearings, members received testimony from top legal officials that detailed how Secretary Mayorkas has failed to uphold his oath of office, how his actions and decisions rise to the level of impeachable offenses, and how his misconduct is costing states across the country,” Green said in a recent statement, announcing the committee vote.
In the first article, refusing to comply with the law, Republicans argue that Mayorkas didn’t uphold immigration laws, exceeded his authority and risked public safety. In the second article, breach of trust, Republicans accuse him of making false statements to Congress, obstructing congressional oversight and other steps like ending construction on the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Oh, please. That goddamn stupid wall again. When Mexico cuts the first check for the wall, talk to me. This is as political as a political prosecution can be. The Republicans are after Mayorkas not for how he did his job, but because they don't like the policies he's been tasked with carrying out. And they figure they can throw as much sand in the gears as is necessary to keep the issue alive through November. Meanwhile, the issue is growing more volatile by the day. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is presiding over insurrectionary obstruction with armed troops. The Congress is split between the Senate Republicans and their wilder children in the House. (The saga of Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma—who is no bargain himself—is an experiment in terror.) The snipes are running wild and the hunters are shooting at the rest of us.
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