Written by by MIRANDA NAZZARO at thehill.com
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Sunday called on his GOP colleagues in the upper chamber to demonstrate “some backbone” and push for an impeachment trial for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who was impeached by the GOP-led House last week.
Mayorkas became the first Cabinet official to be impeached since the 1870s in last Tuesday’s 214-213 vote, which followed a first failed vote.
The articles are not expected to move in the Democrat-led Senate, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) office said last week the chamber would take up the articles when it returns on Feb. 26.
“I got to tell you, with the Mayorkas impeachment, you know what Schumer wants to do? He doesn’t even want to have a trial,” Cruz said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” “He doesn’t even want to have senators vote on guilty or not guilty. What he’s trying to do is simply table it, just put it aside.”
“In over 200 years of our nation’s history, the Senate has never once tabled articles of impeachment. That has never happened. Every single time, the Senate has voted, has voted on either guilt or innocence, or the House has withdrawn the impeachment,” he continued.
Cruz argued the situation provides an opportunity for the GOP leadership in the Senate to push back against criticism.
“And I got to say, look, if Republican leadership in the Senate doesn’t like the criticism, here’s an opportunity to demonstrate some backbone. They could stand up and say, let’s have a trial. They can stand up and say, you cannot refuse to even follow the constitutional process for impeachment. You can’t dodge responsibility,” he said.