Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., told Newsmax on Thursday that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D, N.Y., is wrong when he said the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was over policy disagreement.
"He's 100 percent wrong," Ricketts told "National Report." "This is just absolutely terrible what leader Schumer is doing."
The Senate on Wednesday voted to dismiss the impeachment charges against Mayorkas without holding a trial, with every Democrat, led by Schumer, voting in favor of dismissal.
Ricketts criticized Mayorkas for a memo that was written to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2021 saying a person should not be deported just for crossing the border illegally.
"That is absolutely flaunting the law," Ricketts said.
The next year, Mayorkas told the House Judiciary Committee the border was secure, and that he had absolute control over it.
"That is absolutely not true," Ricketts said. "That should be enough for us to say we need to have a trial and examine the evidence whether he was willfully ignoring the law. If he's lying to Congress, that is actually a felony. That falls into the category of high crimes and misdemeanors."
Of the 21 people previously impeached by Congress, 17 people had a trial and the other four resigned or were expelled, Ricketts said.
"What Schumer is actually doing is breaking the precedent of not having a trial," Ricketts said. "We should've had a trial on this to examine the evidence. Chuck Schumer has destroyed the process by saying this is all about policy."
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Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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