The motion to dispense with reading the full text of the resolution was defeated, again on a straight party-line vote, again of 18 Republicans versus 14 Democrats.
The two party-line votes at the opening of the day’s events were indicative of delaying tactics that Democrats were expected to pursue throughout the day against a process they described as “a political stunt.” Republicans were not surprised by the strategy of parliamentary guerrilla warfare that both parties routinely employ whenever a congressional panel is taking actions opposed by a minority.
“Even some Democrats are starting to get it. Prominent pundit John Judis recently wrote, ‘America’s borders have been de facto open during the first three years of the Biden administration.’ Our colleague from Texas, [Rep. Henry] Mr. Cuellar recently said we have a crisis at the border. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said, ‘There is a crisis.’ Even Secretary Mayorkas’ boss, President Biden, threw him under the bus recently, admitting that the border wasn’t secure.”
Mr. Green described the panel’s preparation as “a methodical, comprehensive, and fair investigation into the causes, costs, and consequences of the border crisis, producing six separate reports totaling around 400 pages.”
He also condemned Democrats’ opposition to the effort from the very beginning, noting that “At every turn, our Democrat colleagues have met these oversight efforts with mockery. They labeled a recent Committee hearing with a mother who lost her son to fentanyl poisoning as ‘Republican Border ‘Hearing Number 746,’” and when we heard from a mother who lost her daughter to fentanyl poisoning and another mother whose daughter was brutally raped and murdered by an illegal alien MS-13 gang member, the Minority labeled the hearing a ’sham' on their website. Are they actually saying these things never occurred? What a slap in the face.”
“The sham impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas is a baseless political stunt by extreme MAGA Republicans. Chairman Green, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene [(R-Ga.)], and others have pushed for and even fundraised based on this preplanned, predetermined scapegoating of the Secretary. In a process akin to throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks, Republicans have cooked up vague, unprecedented grounds to impeach Secretary Mayorkas: ’refusal to follow the law‘ and ’breach of public trust.'”
Mr. Thompson defended Mr. Mayorkas’s performance in office, declaring that “the law is clear, and so is the Secretary’s record. He has leveraged the full range of authorities at his disposal while stretching the resources provided by Congress to secure the border. He has removed record levels of migrants, detained more people than Congress has provided funding for, and prevented record levels of fentanyl from entering our communities.”
Similarly, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) told the hearing that “we’re here based on two completely fabricated and unsubstantiated and never-used-before articles of impeachment. This is completely debasing and demeaning the impeachment clause of the U.S. Constitution. And it is a gross injustice to the credibility of this institution.”
Mr. Goldman also accused Republicans on the panel of moving to impeach Mr. Mayorkas despite the fact he “has spent the last two months trying with a bipartisan group of senators negotiating legislation that would address the problem at the border ... the real reason we are here, as everybody knows, is because Donald Trump wants to run on immigration.”
Mr. Goldman first came to national attention in 2019 as Senior Adviser and Investigations Director for the House Select Committee on Intelligence during its investigation of allegations that former President Donald Trump colluded with Russian intelligence to steal the 2016 presidential election from Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton. The allegations were effectively disproven when former FBI Director Robert Mueller, acting as Special Counsel, was unable to find any confirming evidence.
At another point, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) asked the committee to introduce into the hearing record the text of the Constitution’s impeachment provision in Article II, Section 4, claiming that committee Republicans should read it. Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.) said he doubted many of the Republicans have read the Constitution and offered to send them a copy.
The New Jersey Democrat also claimed that Mr. Mayorkas was denied by the House Republican majority “the tools he needs” to maintain order at the border.” The latter comment echoed a point made repeatedly by Democrats in Congress and by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, including the claim that President Joe Biden, on his first day in office, asked Congress to approve the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, a comprehensive immigration system reform.
The Biden proposal was introduced in the 117th Congress, but neither the Senate, controlled by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), nor the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), convened hearings on the measure, and it went nowhere. Spokesmen for Mr. Schumer and Ms. Pelosi did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment on the lack of action on the Biden immigration proposal.
