Almost all members of the Senate Republican conference have demanded that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer move forward with a full impeachment trial against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, while Senate Democrats are signaling they'll dismiss charges against him quickly.
Forty-three of the Senate's 49 Republicans, led by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., sent a letter to Schumer, D-N.Y., Thursday, urging members of the Senate to "uphold its constitutional responsibility to properly adjudicate the House of Representatives' impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas," reports The Washington Examiner.
Three of the six Republicans who did not sign the letter, Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska; Susan Collins, Maine; and Mitt Romney, Utah, have questioned whether the House has met the standards of "high crimes and misdemeanors" in its call for impeachment.
It was unclear why the other three Republicans, Sens. Tommy Tuberville, Alabama; Bill Cassidy, Louisiana; and Rand Paul, Kentucky, did not sign the letter. Tuberville has already called for a full Senate trial against Mayorkas, and Cassidy said this week he won't support a measure to table the impeachment.
The senators noted in their letter that since 1797, the House has impeached 21 people and that trials "were held in every single instance, except once when an impeached judge resigned from office before the trial commenced."
They insisted that as the House has accused Mayorkas of "demeaning his office," on the matter of securing the border, the "American people deserve to hear the evidence through a Senate trial in a court of impeachment."
Schumer has not commented publicly about his plans for the Mayorkas impeachment, but Democrats have said they plan to dismiss the charges against the secretary and to remind the public that Republicans sank a border deal this year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was to deliver the articles of impeachment Wednesday, but opted to present them next week so the Senate would get them at the beginning of the week.
Schumer said, after Johnson delayed the delivery, that "we're ready to go whenever they are."
"We're sticking with our plan," he told reporters. "We're going to move this as expeditiously as possible."
Senate Democrats could end the trial quickly by making a motion to table the proceedings, which could be passed with a simple 51-59 majority.
However, a group of Republicans have said they will block all chamber legislation if Schumer does not allow a full trial against Mayorkas.