'No high crime': GOP slammed for 'completely made up accusations' on Mayorkas impeachment
As the House Homeland Security Committee meets to discuss articles of impeachment for DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, both Democrats and Republicans are casting doubt on the GOP's ability to make a convincing case to remove him from his post.
According to the Hill, Republicans argue that Mayorkas committed a "breach of public trust" regarding his agency's handing of the ongoing wave of migrants at the Southern border. However, those Republicans have also been accused of making untrue statements, like falsely claiming Mayorkas was behind the termination of former President Donald Trump's asylum agreement with Guatemala (when it was actually Secretary of State Antony Blinken who cancelled it).
"There is no treason. There is no bribery. There is no high crime and misdemeanor," Rep. Dan Goldman (D-New York) said at a press conference on Monday. "You have two completely made up accusations in a litany of articles of impeachment that simply recite policy disputes because the Republicans do not like how President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas have tried to address the issues at the border."
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"If the Republicans are going to open the door to impeach a secretary because they don’t like how that secretary is doing his job, well, what happens if there’s another child separation policy?" Goldman later told the Hill. "What happens if another president pulls out of the Paris climate agreement over the will of Congress? There are a slippery slope of any number of different disagreements that would then rise to the level of impeachment."
In addition to Goldman, multiple Republican-aligned officials cast doubt on the House GOP's ability to make the case that policy disagreements should be worthy of impeachment. Former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff — who worked in former President George W. Bush's administration — recently penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling on the House majority to abandon its efforts to impeach Mayorkas. He argued that Republicans "have failed to put forth evidence that meets the bar," and make an "unsupported argument" that he is failing in his duties.
Additionally, Jonthan Turley — who was a top impeachment lawyer for the impeachments of former Presidents Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and President Joe Biden — has been wary of the impeachment campaign against Mayorkas. Earlier this month he wrote that pursuing impeachment of a cabinet official on spurious grounds is a "slippery slope" that Republicans would be "wise to avoid."
"There is no jurisdictional question for Mayorkas, but there is also no current evidence that he is corrupt or committed an impeachable offense," Turley wrote. "He can be legitimately accused of effectuating an open border policy, but that is a disagreement on policy that is traced to the President."
READ MORE: Top GOP lawyer slams efforts to impeach Mayorkas: 'No current evidence that he is corrupt'
