Representative Laurel Lee (R-FL) helped deliver the articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate.
Congressional Republicans from both chambers including Rep. Lee and Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) held a press conference following the historic event.
However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) slim majority of 51 Democrats in the upper chamber dismissed the trial before it ever began, calling it “the least legitimate, least substantive, and most politicized impeachment trial ever in the history of the United States.”
Before the vote in the Senate, Republicans called on Leader Schumer to allow the proceedings to commence.
Rep. Lee repeatedly mentioned that hearing the case in public is what U.S. citizens “deserve.”
“The American people deserve to hear the facts and the evidence that led us to this day. The American people deserve to hear the things that we in the Committee on Homeland Security heard: the staggering statistics, the deliberate implementation of policies that led to this crisis,” said Rep. Lee. “They deserve to hear the impunity with which Secretary Mayorkas subverted the law; the existing federal law of the United States, and the orders of federal courts directing him that his policies were unconstitutional.”
She continued, “The American people deserve to hear the same stories that we heard in the House of Representatives, the facts and evidence that lead us to the conclusion that this was a necessary decision by the House, that this is so much more than a disagreement about policy. This is about one branch of government that refuses to acknowledge the will and the authority of the others.
After accusing Secretary Mayorkas of lying to Congress about the “true nature” of the status at the southern border and the consequences of Americans being “less safe,” Rep. Lee stated, “The House of Representatives has done its job. It is time for our colleagues in the Senate to do theirs.”
Sen. Rick Scott took more of an emotional approach, asking the audience to ponder the reality of those dead and deeply traumatized by the horrors of human trafficking and illegal immigration.
“Think about your family for a second. Just put a picture in your mind. Your mom or your dad or brother or sister or child or grandchild,” said Sen. Scott. “People just like your family have been raped. They’ve been sold into human trafficking. They’ve been murdered. It’s happened all over the country. There’s cases in Florida, there’s cases all over the country.”
The Florida senator continued, “I don’t know why Biden and Mayorkas and the Democrats are doing what they’re doing. Which is, if you just think about your family for a second, we cherish all those people. Biden, Mayorkas, and the Democrats have said they don’t care and we have an opportunity tomorrow to hear the evidence. That’s all it is.
“If I was Mayorkas, think about what he’s got: he’s been impeached. He has the opportunity now to say he didn’t do anything wrong. He must not want that opportunity because he can’t defend himself … It’s either, he knows he can’t defend himself. Biden knows they can’t defend it. Chuck Schumer knows they can’t defend it. Or it’s just pure politics that they just don’t want you to talk about it and it’d be on television. All of it’s wrong,” said Scott.
Senate Democrats voted down both articles of impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas along party lines as 51 Democrats voted to dismiss each article.
