Read the full piece by Henry Cordes on omaha.com
Nebraska Republican U.S. Senators Pete Ricketts and Deb Fischer both condemned the party-line vote Wednesday that dismissed impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The Senate’s Democratic majority moved to rule both impeachment articles against Mayorkas unconstitutional because they did not rise to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” After a 51-49 vote, the trial was quickly adjourned.
“For 227 years, the Senate held a trial when the House presented impeachment articles,” Ricketts said in a statement. “By refusing to do so now with Secretary Mayorkas, Senate Democrats have shamefully put politics over exercising the impeachment trial authority granted to the Senate in our Constitution.”
“I’m disappointed in my Democrat colleagues for abandoning their constitutional duty, silencing the voices of millions by refusing to hold a trial and denying senators the right to fully consider the charges against Secretary Mayorkas,” Fischer said in a statement.
Neither senator said expressly they would have voted to remove the cabinet secretary if there had been a full trial.
