The Republican House Homeland Security Committee will kick off the new year in a complete waste of time and energy with its first hearing in its impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The charges are ”failed leadership and his refusal to enforce the laws passed by Congress,” and are not real. This is, as New York Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman told reporters Tuesday, “an embarrassment to the impeachment clause of the Constitution.”
It will not be taken up by the Senate, but will give Republicans on the committee (like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene) some camera time. That’s what matters most to them. You can follow along here and on C-SPAN.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:48:04 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Now we’re getting to the witnesses, three MAGA state AGs: Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen; Oklahoma AG Gentner Drummond; Missouri AG Andrew Bailey; and Frank O. Bowman, Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Missouri School of Law.
Starts with Knudsen, again from Montana, arguing that lawlessness at the southern border is his biggest problem because drugs.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:42:18 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Thompson raising a number of parliamentary inquiries about the rules of the committee which Green is blowing off by saying they are not “valid inquiries” and basically that the House vote to move the impeachment supersedes any rules of the committee. Thompson trying to get Green to say that he won’t allow Mayorkas to have legal counsel in hearings—as the Democrats did with Trump, and Green refuses to give a yes or no answer.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:36:43 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Thompson: "This impeachment sham is not about facts. It's not about the law. It's about politics."
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:34:00 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
“You can not impeach a cabinet secretary because you do not like the president’s policies,” Thompson said, saying Republicans are just mad that President Biden is not “taking babies away from their mothers and putting kids in cages” like his predecessor.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:32:34 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Thompson making a good argument—with quotes from border control chiefs—that they need the funding and additional resources that Republicans have refused to provide. “Democrats want to give agents the resources they need to secure the border. Republicans do not.”
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:30:54 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Thompson (that’s Bennie—forgive the typo in previous update) is listing the massive failures of the House GOP in 2023, arguing that this is all a political stunt for them to distract.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:28:25 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Rep. Benny Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the committee, opens. He starts with a recording of Green promising big political donors at a campaign event that he would impeach Mayorkas. This is a “preplanned political stunt,” to “keep that campaign cash coming.”
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:26:19 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Chairman Green justifying this impeachment by insisting that what his calls Mayorkas’ incompetence is grounds, and the constitution doesn’t actually require “high crimes and misdemeanors” to impeach. Expect Democrats to come back hard on that point.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:21:36 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
This is a long, but not exactly explosive, opening statement from Chairman Mark Green. He is showing a snippet from a previous hearing that he says is a smoking gun for Mayorkas lying to Congress which is pretty contorted and also mostly demonstrates that Republicans refused to allow him to actually answer the questions.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:14:15 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Chairman Green now focusing on humanitarian parole which the White House can use to allow immigration, saying that Mayorkas has abused it. This has emerged as a key fight in the Senate’s negotiations on immigration, the hostage Senate Republicans have taken in exchange for their votes on Ukraine aid. This hearing is probably also intended to give the Senate Republicans more (baseless) fodder for their fight.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:09:17 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Green showing video of news reports from Fox News and other right-wing outlets on “chaos” at the border, in case you were wondering if this was going to be a serious venture.
It will not be taken up by the Senate, but will give Republicans on the committee (like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene) some camera time. That’s what matters most to them. You can follow along here and on C-SPAN.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:48:04 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Now we’re getting to the witnesses, three MAGA state AGs: Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen; Oklahoma AG Gentner Drummond; Missouri AG Andrew Bailey; and Frank O. Bowman, Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Missouri School of Law.
Starts with Knudsen, again from Montana, arguing that lawlessness at the southern border is his biggest problem because drugs.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:42:18 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Thompson raising a number of parliamentary inquiries about the rules of the committee which Green is blowing off by saying they are not “valid inquiries” and basically that the House vote to move the impeachment supersedes any rules of the committee. Thompson trying to get Green to say that he won’t allow Mayorkas to have legal counsel in hearings—as the Democrats did with Trump, and Green refuses to give a yes or no answer.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:36:43 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Thompson: "This impeachment sham is not about facts. It's not about the law. It's about politics."
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:34:00 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
“You can not impeach a cabinet secretary because you do not like the president’s policies,” Thompson said, saying Republicans are just mad that President Biden is not “taking babies away from their mothers and putting kids in cages” like his predecessor.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:32:34 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Thompson making a good argument—with quotes from border control chiefs—that they need the funding and additional resources that Republicans have refused to provide. “Democrats want to give agents the resources they need to secure the border. Republicans do not.”
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:30:54 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Thompson (that’s Bennie—forgive the typo in previous update) is listing the massive failures of the House GOP in 2023, arguing that this is all a political stunt for them to distract.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:28:25 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Rep. Benny Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the committee, opens. He starts with a recording of Green promising big political donors at a campaign event that he would impeach Mayorkas. This is a “preplanned political stunt,” to “keep that campaign cash coming.”
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:26:19 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Chairman Green justifying this impeachment by insisting that what his calls Mayorkas’ incompetence is grounds, and the constitution doesn’t actually require “high crimes and misdemeanors” to impeach. Expect Democrats to come back hard on that point.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:21:36 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
This is a long, but not exactly explosive, opening statement from Chairman Mark Green. He is showing a snippet from a previous hearing that he says is a smoking gun for Mayorkas lying to Congress which is pretty contorted and also mostly demonstrates that Republicans refused to allow him to actually answer the questions.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:14:15 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Chairman Green now focusing on humanitarian parole which the White House can use to allow immigration, saying that Mayorkas has abused it. This has emerged as a key fight in the Senate’s negotiations on immigration, the hostage Senate Republicans have taken in exchange for their votes on Ukraine aid. This hearing is probably also intended to give the Senate Republicans more (baseless) fodder for their fight.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 · 3:09:17 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter
Green showing video of news reports from Fox News and other right-wing outlets on “chaos” at the border, in case you were wondering if this was going to be a serious venture.