Vulnerable Senate Democrats in vice on Mayorkas impeachment vote

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and other vulnerable Senate Democrats face strong political opposition in next week’s vote to dismiss the impeachment charge against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. ing.

Republicans have already forced Democrats to take several tough votes on immigration and border security, and are bashing Democrats around the country with attack ads as they move into November on the issue.

This tactic seems to be hitting hard. Tester said Tuesday that the charges against Mayorkas need to be carefully considered, breaking with other Democrats who have dismissed them entirely as political stunts.

“I have to review my memory to see what the House did. Now, it would be kind of a shock to me if the House did nothing politically, but we did it. We need to seriously consider it,” Tester said.

“I needed to see the documents,” he said, referring to the charges listed in the articles of impeachment that narrowly passed the House in mid-February. “At the end of the day, I just want to read and double-check the paper.” [myself] In light of what the House has done…we will then decide what to do. ”

Tester told Politico in February that he supports a motion to dismiss the impeachment charges against Mayorkas, which drew an attack from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) on Tuesday.

NRSC spokeswoman Maggie Abboud said Tester is “finally starting to realize that being a soldier of Joe Biden’s policies is not popular in Montana.”

Tester says border security has been bombarded with misleading attack ads. He noted that Senate Republicans overwhelmingly voted to reject a bipartisan border security agreement approved by the National Border Security Council.

“I think Congress did a terrible job on the border issue,” he said. “We had an opportunity a month ago to fix the border, and Republicans were told they wanted this to be a campaign issue, and they’re using it as a campaign issue. But we… could have fixed it.”

Others in Republican-leaning and swing states include Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada), and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.). Democrats are also hedging their answers or not saying how they will vote. ).

Brown, one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the Senate, said he was “likely” to vote in favor of impeachment.

“It’s just a distraction. We should be doing a border security bill, and we had a bipartisan bill to move forward. We should be keeping our railroads safe. We should be doing politics like this.” There are many things we should be doing instead,” he added.

Warnock, who faced a fierce re-election battle in the last election, said he would not comment until the charges are formally filed.

“I’m going to fulfill my responsibility as a potential juror, so I don’t want to prejudge what I might need to say later,” he said. “we will see.”

Cortez Masto said she has not yet decided how she will vote.

The original plan was to vote on the two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas on Thursday afternoon, when senators were scheduled to return to their home states for the weekend.

But on Tuesday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) agreed to hold the articles of impeachment in the House until early next week to increase oversight of vulnerable Senate Democrats.

Senate conservatives are urging Tester, Brown, Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who are facing re-election fights, to travel to Washington for several days next week to protect their votes. They want to force them to stay. Against the Mayorkas trial.

“I think there are a lot of Democrats who really want to avoid voting. I don’t blame them. I mean, this is in the best interest of the American people, and this is directly linked to the disaster at the southern border that is hard to defend.” It’s relevant. I don’t see how Democrats can defend that,” said Senate Republican Leader John Thune (S.D.).

He said a Senate impeachment trial would give senators an opportunity to hold the administration accountable for border issues.

“You’re talking about the people who are directly responsible for it, the people, and that’s the president and Secretary Mayorkas,” Thune said.

Senate conservatives say Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York wants to move quickly on articles of impeachment to prevent vulnerable Democrats from sitting through lengthy statements of charges against Mayorkas on the Senate floor. He said that he is thinking of moving the matter up to the next level.

“Why does Mr. Schumer want to do this? Because he believes the press will let him and all the Democrats get away with it,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told reporters Tuesday afternoon. He told reporters at a press conference.

“How many people have ever asked Jon Tester of Montana, ‘Why do you refuse to comply with your constitutional obligations?'” [to hold a trial]?’ How many of you have asked Sherrod Brown, Jacky Rosen, Tammy Baldwin? They’re all on the ballot. “This is the person Chuck Schumer is trying to protect from having to listen to the evidence and fulfill his constitutional responsibility,” Cruz argued.

Earlier in the day, Schumer dismissed questions about whether a vote to bring impeachment and avoid a trial would hurt vulnerable Democrats ahead of Election Day.

“Look, we will try to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. Impeachment should never be used to resolve policy disagreements,” he said.

Senate Democratic aides said they expected the provision to be rejected as soon as it is introduced in the Senate. If he arrives by Monday, aides expect he will be taken into custody the next day.

“We’re ready for them to go at any time. We’re sticking to our plan. We’re going to move this forward as quickly as possible.” Schumer said the speaker will keep the impeachment documents in the House until next week. I told him when I found out.