(17 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
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POOL
Washington – 17 April 2024
1. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson walking towards reporters
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House:
"We’re, we’re deeply disappointed in the Senate’s action, the Senate’s action they’ve just taken on the Mayorkas impeachment proceedings. There should have been a full trial. The American people should have been able to see the evidence and evaluate for themselves. What I think they know already intuitively, and that is that Secretary Mayorkas had a fantastical breach of duty."
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3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House:
"In my view, I believe, my evaluation is he’s, he’s probably the least effective and I think most dangerous in terms of his policy implementations of any cabinet secretary in the history of United States. And if there’s ever been a cabinet secretary that deserve to be impeached, he is that and the idea that the Senate and, under Chuck Schumer’s leadership, voted on party lines to not even allow the American people to evaluate the evidence is shameful. I think it’s a violation of their constitutional responsibility. And I think there’ll be a reckoning for all this in the election cycle in the fall, I really do."
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4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, U.S. House Minority Leader:
"What’s going on in the Senate is a charade. There’s no justification, no foundation, no basis for pursuing the impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas. This is all part of the Marjorie Taylor Greene Show, and it’s unfortunate that she’s driving the agenda on so many issues as it relates to the extreme MAGA (Make America Great Again) Republicans in the House."
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5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Katherine Clark, Democratic Whip:
"They are operating under the direction of Marjorie Taylor Greene and the most extreme factions of their conference. How do we know this? Because when the president came together and was told that they needed immigration reform to be tough and on border security in order to pass this national security package, the president did just that and forged an agreement with Republicans, a bipartisan agreement in the Senate that was rejected by the House GOP before they even saw the final text. They have said the quiet part out loud when it comes to immigration, when it comes to fixing our broken system, when it comes to making sure we’re stopping the flow of fentanyl and that we have order at our border. They’re not interested in solutions, they’re interested in continuing this as a divisive political issue, full stop. They’ve shown us their hand, they’ve been clear. And what we’re seeing in the Senate is an extension of that policy."
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STORYLINE:
The Senate has dismissed all impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, ending the House Republican push to remove the Cabinet secretary from office over his handling of the the U.S.-Mexico border and ending his trial before arguments even began.
Senate Democrats argued that the articles were unconstitutional.
"We’re deeply disappointed in the Senate’s action," said Rep. Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House speaking to reporters after the vote. "There should have been a full trial. The American people should have been able to see the evidence and evaluate for themselves."
The first article charged Mayorkas with “willful and systemic refusal to comply” with immigration law.
The votes were 51-48 and 51-49, both along party lines.
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