U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito expressed her frustrations Thursday that the Senate wasn’t able to even hear the findings of the U.S. House of Representatives in the impeachment proceedings of U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
The House voted to impeach Mayorkas in February – making him the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in 150 years – over his handling of the southern border. The Senate took up the articles of impeachment Wednesday, but quickly dismissed them.
The Democratic-controlled body voted to kill the first article 51-48, with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voting “present.” The second article was killed with a 51-49 party-line vote.
During her virtual briefing Thursday afternoon, Capito, R-W.Va., reiterated her position that a trial should have happened.
“I would say the Secretary Mayorkas impeachment trial was a grave disappointment to me,” because there was no trial,” she said. “It was never considered. (Senate Majority Leader Chuck) Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the Senate Democrats just voted it off the table so that we couldn’t even hear what the House found – how the Secretary has been shunning the law in terms of asylum and parole and other things.
“Sen. Schumer and the Democrats just decided we don’t want to hear it,” she continued. “We don’t think it’s a valid exercise, and so we’re not even going to listen to it. Well, my constitutional duty is to have a trial as we have with every other person who’s been impeached by the House that didn’t resign first. So have a trial, listen to the evidence and then vote one way or the other.”
Capito said she wanted to hear for herself whether the accusations against Mayorkas rose to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. She added that it was “a disservice to the Senate” that the body wasn’t able to take part in the process.
“I don’t even know what the depth of the charges brought against him could or would be,” she said. “I do know the situation is 9 million illegals. He’s testified before the Congress that the border is under control, and I think that could be no farther from the truth. So one of the charges was that he’s lying to Congress, statistically and otherwise of how he’s enforcing
“But we never even got to that point,” Capito continued. “Sen. Schumer took it off the table with the support of every Senate Democrat.”
Among her chief concerns was that the Senate Democrats’ move created a precedent that could undermine other impeachment trials in the future.
“I think it also sets up a dangerous precedent, I believe,” she said. “And the presiding officer, who is a Senate Democrat, said herself that this does set a precedent, so that if impeachment charges do come over from the House, that one of the options is to not hear it in its entirety at all or any of it. So you can imagine what that might do for the future.”
Capito also mentioned Iran’s attack last weekend against Israel, which was the largest drone strike in history, with more than 170 drones and 120 ballistic missiles launched at Israel.
The vast majority of those projectiles were intercepted, but Capito said the situation was a concerning one.
“I think it just shows how precarious the situation is for Israel, our strongest ally and a huge democracy,” she said. “They’ve had attacks from Gaza, Iranians, either themselves or through their proxies have been attacking Israel through Hamas, through the Houthis, through Hezbollah. And it’s a very difficult situation leading to my strong support for Israel to help them defend themselves.”
Capito also said she supported continued aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia and to the Taiwanese to push back against possible “empire building” from China.