1 week ago
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House Republicans really wanted an impeachment of … someone. President Joe Biden, preferably, or his son Hunter, or maybe Hunter’s laptop, or perhaps Hunter’s dogwalker. They decided on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who didn’t commit any high crimes or misdemeanors but did attempt to execute the policies of the administration in which he serves.
On Wednesday, the Senate took one look at the articles of impeachment oh-so-solemnly delivered just the day before and said, “Nope. Hard pass.” Senators voted to toss the case without wasting their time on a trial.
And like that, it was all over.
That House Republicans, led by their increasingly endangered leader Mike Johnson, insisted on going through with the whole charade in the first place is a testament to their dedication to absurd stunts, as well as their inability to count. In February, they couldn’t count the number of votes they would need to actually impeach Mayorkas, and their first attempt failed.
Once they finally got their precious articles passed, they waited. And waited. And waited. It just never seemed like the right time to send those articles to the Senate because even Republican senators were musing that it all seemed like a ridiculous waste of time.
But finally—finally!—the glorious moment came when Marjorie Taylor Greene and fellow House impeachment managers would have the spotlight on their big impeachment moment. Except that didn’t happen either, because Greene directed the media’s attention instead to her threats to oust the aforementioned increasingly endanger House speaker.
If only the Republicans could get a trial in the Senate, though, they’d show once and for all how impeachable Mayorkas’ supposed offenses really were. Only problem there is that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said all along he’d move to toss the whole thing without a trial, and a lot of his fellow Democrats—even West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, who called the impeachment stunt “pure crap”—agreed with him.
So where does that leave everyone? Senators are now free to go back to doing their jobs. As is Mayorkas. But Johnson, who can’t seem to deliver a win to his Republican caucus no matter what? Well, the the bad week he was already having on Tuesday just got worse. And his miscalculation about when it would be safe to send the impeachment to the Senate certainly won’t improve things for him. On Tuesday, Greene picked up the support of Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, who said he would cosponsor her motion kick Johnson to the curb. Thus far, they’re the only two Republicans in the House who want to fire yet another speaker, but now that Johnson’s delivered another humiliation, who knows whether others might be ready to join that mission. After all, it’s only Wednesday.
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