House Speaker Mike Johnson says he will wait until next week to send articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate.
In a rare move, lawmakers issued two articles of impeachment earlier this yearin an effort to hold the cabinet member responsible for the influx of migrants at the border, and House Republicans were set to bring their impeachment case to the Senate this week.
However, Republicans became concerned about the optics of scheduling the trial mid-week, leading to senators rushing to a quick conclusion before heading home, which seems to be what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wants.
“To ensure the Senate has adequate time to perform its constitutional duty, the House will transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week. There is no reason whatsoever for the Senate to abdicate its responsibility to hold an impeachment trial,” said the speaker of the House in a statement through a spokesperson.
And other Republican lawmakers agree with the move.
"I'm very grateful to Speaker Johnson for his bold willingness to delay this. We don't want this to come over on the eve of the moment when members might be operating under the influence of jet fume intoxication. That was precisely the plan, and it's much better for us to do this at the beginning of a legislative week rather than toward the end of one," said Sen. Mike Lee.
The big question now is: What will Schumer do with this trial? Senate Republicans believe that Schumer is going to do anything he can to make this trial go away, whether that's a motion to dismiss, a motion to refer to committee, or a motion to table to a later date. While he didn't answer any specific questions on how he plans to handle this case, he did confirm this is something they will try to solve as fast as possible.
"We're going to try and resolve this issue as quickly as possible. Impeachment should never be used to settle policy disagreements," said Schumer. "As I said in the past, it's absurd and there are no charges in the House complaint that rise to the level of impeachment."
Had the timing not changed, the charges would have arrived on schedule at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, when senators usually depart for the week on Thursday, meaning that there wouldn't have been a very long window in which to begin a trial.
What happens next in the impeachment process for Sec. Mayorkas?
Following the House vote to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, Scripps News learned that the Senate's impeachment trial will begin Feb. 26.
