Month: February 2024

Trump spent years exploiting immigrants he now claims are ‘poisoning’ our country

Posted on by Charles Jay

Former President Donald Trump used language right from Hitler’s playbook when he claimed that immigrants coming to the U.S. are “poisoning the blood of our country.” What’s particularly scary is just how many Trump supporters embrace his fascistic rhetoric about immigrants. Rolling Stone reported on the results of a University of Massachusetts Amherst poll that found that 35% of Trump’s 2020 voters agree with his dark message about the threat posed by immigrants.

But what they probably don’t realize is the total hypocrisy of Trump’s rhetoric. That’s because for decades, including during Trump’s presidency, his company relied on undocumented workers to fill jobs as housekeepers, waiters, groundskeepers, and stonemasons at his properties, The Washington Post reported.

RELATED STORY: Trump's attacking a military family because that's who he is

The newspaper wrote:

Using them brought a double advantage: Trump could reap the financial benefit of undocumented labor — the ability to pay his employees lower wages and fewer benefits — and the political benefit of attacking it.

The subject of immigration and the border crisis has become the hot button issue for Republicans. House Republicans narrowly impeached Cuban-born Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Tuesday evening for allegedly failing to enforce immigration laws. But for decades, the Trump Organization ignored the employment eligibility of its workers.

RELATED STORY: House GOP votes to impeach Mayorkas, after failing first attempt

In December 2019, The Washington Post shared that its reporters had spoken with 48 undocumented immigrants who had worked for the Trump Organization at 11 of its properties, including five golf courses in New Jersey and New York and the Mar-a-Lago private club in Florida. Trump has said he was unaware that his properties had hired undocumented workers.

One of the undocumented workers, Sandra Diaz, an immigrant from Costa Rica who used a fake Social Security card to get hired, worked as Trump’s personal housekeeper at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey. She described her duties to The Washington Post as follows:

Moving quickly through the two-story house in the mornings, Diaz carried out Trump’s fastidious instructions. In his closet, she would hang six sets of identical golf outfits: six white polo shirts, six pairs of beige pants, six neatly ironed pairs of boxer shorts. She would smear a dollop of Trump’s liquid face makeup on the back of her hand to make sure it hadn’t dried out.

In late 2018, Diaz and her successor as Trump’s personal housekeeper at Bedminster, Victorina Morales, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, approached The New York Times through their immigration lawyer to talk about their experiences working at the Trump golf club.

Diaz, who worked at Bedminster from 2010-2013, is now a legal resident of the U.S., the Times reported. Morales was still working at Bedminster when she went public about her immigration status; she no longer works at the club and has filed an application for asylum status.

Morales told the Times that she could no longer keep silent because she felt hurt by Trump’s public  comments equating Latin American immigrants with violent criminals and by abusive comments from a supervisor at the golf club about her intelligence and immigration status.

“We are tired of the abuse, the insults, the way he talks about us when he knows that we are here helping him make money,” Morales told  The Times. “We sweat it out to attend to his every need and have to put up with his humiliation.”

That led to more reports in The Washington Post and other major news outlets. Here’s an interview the two women gave to NowThis News.

YouTube Video

After the women came forward, the Trump Organization began cracking down. It audited employees’ immigration papers and started using the federal E-Verify online system to check documents to confirm employment eligibility for new hires. Dozens of undocumented workers were either fired or quit in the runup to the 2020 election campaign.

In May 2019, CNN interviewed 19 of the undocumented immigrants who had worked at Trump golf clubs in New York and New Jersey:

YouTube Video

But after 2020, this story about undocumented workers at Trump properties simply faded away. It’s important to keep Trump’s hypocrisy in the forefront as he has made immigration the major issue of his 2024 presidential campaign and is dehumanizing immigrants with fascistic rhetoric worse than when he ran in 2016.

The New York Times reported that Trump plans to introduce even more draconian immigration laws if elected than he did in his first term, which was marked by such cruel policies as separating children from their parents at the border. Trump’s plans for a second term include: deporting millions of people who don’t have legal status, setting up massive camps along the border to hold people awaiting deportation, a renewed Muslim travel ban, and the end of birthright citizenship.

Todd Schulte, the president of FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice advocacy group, told The New York Times:

“Americans should understand these policy proposals are an authoritarian, often illegal, agenda that would rip apart nearly every aspect of American life — tanking the economy, violating the basic civil rights of millions of immigrants and native-born Americans alike.”

It’s worth noting that about 200 undocumented Polish construction workers laid the foundation for Trump’s real estate empire when they were hired in 1980 to demolish a department store on Fifth Avenue on the future site of Trump Tower. In August 2016, just months before the presidential election, Time Magazine reported about how the Polish workers were exploited, “putting in 12-hour shifts with inadequate safety equipment at subpar wages that their contractor paid sporadically, if at all.” Trump denied that he knowingly used undocumented workers, instead blaming the contractor. But documents reviewed by Time showed that Trump sought out the Polish workers for the demolition project when he saw them working on another job.

After a protracted legal battle, Trump settled a lawsuit in 1998 regarding the workers over union pension violations, agreeing to pay nearly $1.4 million. Time reported the settlement details in 2017 after going to court to get the records unsealed.

Time reported that in 1990, Daniel Sullivan, a labor consultant and FBI informant hired by Trump in 1980 to deal with the problem of the undocumented Polish workers, told People magazine:

“It was disgusting how he used people,” Sullivan said. “I said, ‘Don’t exploit them like that. Don’t try to f-ck these poor souls over.’ It baffled me then, and it makes me sick even now that he knowingly had these Poles there for the purpose of Trump Tower at starvation wages. He couldn’t give a sh-t because he’s Donald Trump and everybody is here to serve him. Over time he became more and more monstrous and arrogant. I asked myself, ‘How long is it going to take for all of this to catch up with him?'”

It certainly hasn’t so far.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who like other Republican politicians has bowed the knee to Trump, even brought up the issue of Trump’s hiring of undocumented immigrants to work at or construct some of his properties during a February 2016 Republican presidential debate. But that didn’t stop Trump from winning the nomination with his promise to build a wall along the southern border and have Mexico pay for it.

Someone has been poisoning our democracy, and it sure isn’t hard-working immigrants.

RELATED STORY: For Republicans, it's now 'Trump First, Putin Second, America Third'

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WATCH LIVE: White House holds briefing as House impeachment of DHS Secretary Mayorkas goes to Senate

Posted on by Associated Press
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will hold a news briefing on Wednesday as the House impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas heads to a trial in the Senate. The event is scheduled to begin at noon. Please watch in the player above. The U.S. House voted Tuesday to impeach Mayorkas, with the Republican majority determined to punish the Biden administration over its handling of the U.S-Mexico border after failing last week in a...

Mike Pence’s think tank rebuts JD Vance’s ‘impeachment time bomb’ claim in foreign aid package

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

FIRST ON FOX: Former Vice President Mike Pence's policy think tank, Advancing American Freedom (AAF), sent a memo to senators Wednesday pushing back against Sen. JD Vance's theory that the $95 billion foreign aid package contains an "impeachment" clause for the next administration hidden in its text.

AAF's memo comes after Vance circulated a memo ahead of the national security supplemental package vote Monday arguing the bill includes a provision that could be grounds to impeach former President Donald Trump if he wins the White House again. 

The text assures the delivery of $1.6 billion to finance Ukraine's military as well as just under $14 billion for Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative through Sept. 30, 2025 – the same aid mechanism that Trump temporarily paused while pushing for an investigation into Biden family foreign business dealings. 

"The president’s duty to faithfully execute the law is written into the Constitution," AAF's memo reads. "It’s not an ‘impeachment time bomb’ created by the foreign aid package."

According to the memo, AAF argues that the Constitution mandates the president to faithfully execute laws, rejecting attempts from lawmakers to interpret this as permission to ignore statutes. 

The Impoundment Control Act ensures Congress controls funding, requiring presidential notification and approval for cuts within a 45-day timeframe. Congress wields the power of the purse, the AAF memo states, despite changes in administrations. 

SENATOR PAUL ASSERTS UKRAINE AID PACKAGE WOULD 'TIE THE HANDS' OF FUTURE ADMINISTRATIONS

"Congress routinely appropriates funds across presidential terms," the memo reads. "Following the argument to its logical conclusion, all advance appropriations are ‘impeachment time bombs.’"

"The Trump-Pence administration sold weapons to Ukraine that the Obama-Biden administration refused to," the memo continued. "It also countered Putin’s influence by blocking Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which President Biden green-lighted."

Meanwhile, Vance's memo claimed that the supplemental bill "represents an attempt by the foreign policy blob/deep state to stop President Trump from pursuing his desired policy, and if he does so anyways, to provide grounds to impeach him and undermine his administration."

Trump has promised he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours if he is elected president. 

SEN. VANCE MEMO WARNS GOP COLLEAGUES OF ‘SYSTEMIC FAILURES’ IN US AID TO UKRAINE

The Trump administration, through the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), withheld a total of about $400 million in security assistance from Ukraine in 2019. This came just before Trump asked Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelenskyy to investigate the family of his 2020 rival, Joe Biden, and while the White House allegedly was withholding an Oval Office visit from Zelenskyy in exchange for an investigation.

These actions are what fueled the impeachment effort against Trump, in which he was ultimately acquitted. 

Mark Paoletta, former OMB general counsel during the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital in a statement this week that the clause in the bill text is an "effort to inappropriately tie President Trump’s hands in his next term by locking in Ukraine funding for multiple years." 

SENATE PASSES CONTROVERSIAL FOREIGN AID BILL SENDING BILLIONS TO UKRAINE, ISRAEL AND TAIWAN

Last week, AAF praised the bill for its continued assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, but bashed the billions of dollars earmarked for "non-lethal" aid, such as "direct budget support" to Ukraine. It also criticized the bill for not including H.R 2, the House's border security policy passed last year that would crack down on asylum screenings and restore most Trump-era restrictions at the southern border. 

Texas GOP leaders reverse course, ban antisemites from party

Posted on by Texas Tribune
 

By Robert Downen, The Texas Tribune

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The Republican Party of Texas’ executive committee voted Saturday to censure House Speaker Dade Phelan and passed a resolution stating that the party will not associate with antisemites — a reversal from December, when a similar measure was narrowly and controversially defeated following outcry over a major donor group’s ties to white supremacists.

The antisemitism resolution, which passed unanimously with two abstentions, came four months after The Texas Tribune reported that Jonathan Stickland, then the leader of Defend Texas Liberty, had hosted infamous white supremacist and Adolf Hitler admirer Nick Fuentes for nearly seven hours in early October.

Subsequent reporting by the Tribune uncovered other, close ties between avowed antisemites and Defend Texas Liberty, a major political action committee that two West Texas oil tycoons have used to fund far-right groups and lawmakers in the state. Defend Texas Liberty is also one of the Texas GOP’s biggest donors.

In response to the Fuentes meeting, Phelan and 60 other House Republicans called on party members to redirect any funds from Defend Texas Liberty to pro-Israel charities — demands that were initially rebuffed by some Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who later announced that he was reinvesting the $3 million he received from Defend Texas Liberty into Israeli bonds.

Nearly half of the Texas GOP’s executive committee also demanded that the party cut all ties with Stickland, Defend Texas Liberty and its auxiliary organizations until Stickland was removed and a full explanation for the Fuentes meeting was provided. Stickland was quietly removed as Defend Texas Liberty’s president in October, but is still the leader of an influential consulting firm, Pale Horse Strategies, that works with Defend Texas Liberty clients.

Defend Texas Liberty has yet to provide more details on its links to Fuentes or Fuentes associates — including the leader of Texans For Strong Borders, an anti-immigration group that continues to push lawmakers to adopt hardline border policies.

The tensions came to a head in December, when the Texas GOP’s executive committee narrowly defeated a resolution that would have banned the party from associating with antisemites, Holocaust deniers or neo-Nazis — language that some members of the executive committee argued was too vague, and could complicate the party’s relationship with donors or candidates.

The need for such a measure was also downplayed at the time by Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi, who abstained from voting but argued there was no "significant" antisemitism on the right. Rinaldi is a longtime ally of Defend Texas Liberty who was seen outside of the one-story, rural Tarrant County office where Fuentes was being hosted. Rinaldi later denied meeting with Fuentes and condemned him. Last month, the Tribune also reported that, at the same time that he was attacking critics of Defend Texas Liberty over the Fuentes meeting, Rinaldi was working as an attorney for Farris Wilks, one the two West Texas oil billionaires who fund Defend Texas Liberty.

After the measure was defeated in December, Patrick also put out a lengthy statement in which he condemned the vote and said he expected it to be revisited by the Texas GOP’s executive committee at its next meeting.

The executive committee did as much on Saturday, passing a resolution that stated that the party “opposes anti-Semitism and will always oppose and not associate with individuals or groups which espouse anti-Semitism or support for attacks on Israel.”

The resolution’s language is significantly watered down compared to proposals from late last year, which specifically named Stickland and Defend Texas Liberty or sought to ban those who espouse — as well as those who “tolerate” — antisemitism, neo-Nazi beliefs or Holocaust denial. Since then, Defend Texas Liberty’s funders have spun off a new political action committee, Texans United For a Conservative Majority, that has been active in this year’s primaries.

Separately, the executive committee also voted 55-4 to censure Phelan over, among other things, his role in the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton, his appointment of Democrats to chair House committees and for allegedly allowing a bill on border security to die in May. Phelan was not at the committee meeting.

Phelan’s spokesperson, Cait Wittman, slammed the censure on Saturday, as well as the executive committee’s previous failure to ban antisemites from the party and what she said was its delayed response to last year’s scandal involving Bryan Slaton, a Republican state representative who was expelled from the Texas House in May after getting a 19-year-old aide drunk and having sex with her.

“This is the same organization that rolled out the red carpet for a group of Neo-Nazis, refused to disassociate from anti-Semitic groups and balked at formally condemning a known sexual predator before he was ousted from the Texas House,” Wittman wrote on X. “The (executive committee) has lost its moral authority and is no longer representative of the views of the Party as a whole.”

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

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3 Republicans vote against impeaching DHS Secretary Mayorkas

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

Three Republican lawmakers voted against impeaching Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas Tuesday night as the House of Representatives successfully impeached the border chief over his mishandling of the illegal immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., Ken Buck, R-Colo., and Tom McClintock, R-Calif., bucked their party to side with Democrats in opposing Mayorkas' impeachment.

This is the first time a Cabinet secretary has been impeached by the U.S. Congress since 1876.

The 214-213 vote comes after Mayorkas narrowly defeated impeachment last week when every House Democrat showed up to protect him, including Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who temporarily left the hospital where he was recovering from surgery to cast his vote.

HOUSE VOTES TO IMPEACH DHS SECRETARY MAYORKAS OVER BORDER CRISIS

House Republicans have accused Mayorkas of ignoring existing immigration law and worsening the situation at the Southern Border.

The three Republicans who voted against impeachment on Tuesday have criticized Mayorkas' handling of the border but expressed reservations over whether it rose to the level of impeachment. McClintock warned it could set a precedent for political impeachments that could harm Republican officials in the future.

"Swapping one leftist for another is a fantasy, solves nothing, excuses Biden’s culpability, and unconstitutionally expands impeachment that someday will bite Republicans," McClintock said last week.

But House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pushed back on concerns about precedent when speaking to reporters hours before the vote on Tuesday.

"Mayorkas is an exceptional case in U.S. history," Johnson said, adding that the secretary has done more "damage on the country than any Cabinet secretary that's ever been."

Johnson also spoke about the likely scenario that the impeachment would go nowhere in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

"The House has a constitutional responsibility, as I've said many times. It's probably the heaviest next to a declaration of war. And we have to do our job regardless of what the other chamber does," he said.

HOUSE FAILS TO IMPEACH DHS SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS IN MAJOR BLOW TO GOP

Two impeachment articles were approved against Mayorkas by the House Homeland Security Committee: one alleging he "refused to comply with Federal immigration laws" and the other alleging he violated "public trust."

The Department of Homeland Security criticized House Republicans for holding a second Mayorkas impeachment vote on Tuesday, pointing to comments by GOP lawmakers who have called the effort a waste of time.

"House Republicans' baseless push to impeach Secretary Mayorkas has already failed once, with bipartisan opposition," the department said. "If Members of Congress care about our national security, they should listen to their fellow Republicans and stop wasting time on this pointless, unconstitutional impeachment – time that could be spent addressing the issue by advancing bipartisan legislation to fix our broken immigration laws and provide needed resources for border security."

A DHS spokesperson said House Republicans "will be remembered by history for trampling on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve the serious challenges at our border."

"While Secretary Mayorkas was helping a group of Republican and Democratic Senators develop bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security and get needed resources for enforcement, House Republicans have wasted months with this baseless, unconstitutional impeachment," the spokesperson said.

"Without a shred of evidence or legitimate Constitutional grounds, and despite bipartisan opposition, House Republicans have falsely smeared a dedicated public servant who has spent more than 20 years enforcing our laws and serving our country," the spokesperson added. "Secretary Mayorkas and the Department of Homeland Security will continue working every day to keep Americans safe."

President Biden said, "history will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games."

"This impeachment already failed on a bipartisan vote," Biden said. "Instead of staging political stunts like this, Republicans with genuine concerns about the border should want Congress to deliver more border resources and stronger border security."

The articles will now head to the Senate, where the office of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Mayorkas' impeachment trial will begin later this month.

"The House impeachment managers will present the articles of impeachment to the Senate following the state work period," Schumer's office said in a statement. "Senators will be sworn in as jurors in the trial the next day. Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray will preside."

Fox News' Elizabeth Elkind and Bradford Betz contributed to this report.

Democrats blast DHS Secretary Mayorkas impeachment as GOP ‘political’ stunt: ‘No evidence of wrongdoing’

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

House of Representatives Democrats are decrying the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as a "political" stunt.

Representative Anna Eshoo, D-C.A, said that Mayorka's historic impeachment on Tuesday was a "political stunt" and that there was "no evidence of wrongdoing."

"With no evidence of wrongdoing, House Republicans voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas today after the House rejected an identical resolution last week," Rep. Eshoo said. "This is an abuse of the solemn power of impeachment which the Constitution reserves for extraordinary circumstances when officials have engaged in serious misconduct. Secretary Mayorkas is the first cabinet secretary impeached in nearly 150 years and the first ever impeached without evidence of impropriety."

"Astonishingly, House Republicans took this drastic step while refusing to even consider the bipartisan border security bill proposed by Senate negotiators. It’s long past time for Republicans to abandon their harmful political stunts and instead work to advance real solutions to our nation’s challenges," the Representative continued.

HOUSE VOTES TO IMPEACH DHS SECRETARY MAYORKAS OVER BORDER CRISIS

Representative Pramila Jayapal, D-W.A, a member of the Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Subcommittee, said that the "do-nothing" Republicans continue to "waste time and resources" on "baseless, partisan attacks."

"Today, the ‘do-nothing’ Republican Party continues to waste time and resources that could be spent working for the American people on baseless, partisan attacks of Biden Administration officials as they take up this sham impeachment vote of Secretary Mayorkas for the second time in two weeks, after an embarrassing failure last week," Rep. Jayapal said in a statement.

"There is no question that the immigration system is broken – and what the American people want and deserve is an orderly and humane system that properly processes people and modernizes an outdated immigration system that has not been updated in over 30 years to reflect for the needs of our American economy, communities, and families. The situation that we’re seeing at the southern border is a direct result of this failure to address the underlying system, compounded by the extreme policies of the Trump Administration," she continued.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., previously called the case against Mayorkas a "sham impeachment" and a "new low for House Republicans."

"This sham impeachment effort is another embarrassment for House Republicans," Schumer said. "The one and only reason for this impeachment is for Speaker Johnson to further appease Donald Trump."

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that the vote moved forward "without a shred of evidence or legitimate Constitutional grounds."

HERE ARE THE 3 HOUSE REPUBLICANS WHO TORPEDOED MAYORKAS’ IMPEACHMENT VOTE

"House Republicans will be remembered by history for trampling on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve the serious challenges at our border," DHS spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement. "While Secretary Mayorkas was helping a group of Republican and Democratic Senators develop bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security and get needed resources for enforcement, House Republicans have wasted months with this baseless, unconstitutional impeachment.

President Joe Biden blasted House Republicans immediately after the vote.

"History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games," he said.

Biden said that Republicans have pushed Mayorkas' "baseless impeachment" and rejected bipartisan plans.

"Instead of staging political stunts like this, Republicans with genuine concerns about the border should want Congress to deliver more border resources and stronger border security. Sadly, the same Republicans pushing this baseless impeachment are rejecting bipartisan plans Secretary Mayorkas and others in my administration have worked hard on to strengthen border security at this very moment — reversing from years of their own demands to pass stronger border bills," Biden continued. 

Biden said that Congress has to give his administration the tools to address the southern border and that the House GOP has to "decide whether to join us to solve the problem or keep playing politics with the border."

HOUSE FAILS TO IMPEACH DHS SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS IN MAJOR BLOW TO GOP

"Giving up on real solutions right when they are needed most in order to play politics is not what the American people expect from their leaders. Congress needs to act to give me, Secretary Mayorkas, and my administration the tools and resources needed to address the situation at the border. The House also needs to pass the Senate’s national security supplemental right away. We will continue pursuing real solutions to the challenges Americans face, and House Republicans have to decide whether to join us to solve the problem or keep playing politics with the border," Biden said.

The Democrat's statement came after Mayorkas was impeached by the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon.

A Cabinet secretary has not been impeached by the U.S. Congress since 1876.

The 214-213 vote was always expected to be tight; Mayorkas narrowly escaped impeachment last week when every single House Democrat showed up to shield him, including Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who temporarily left the hospital where he was recovering from surgery to cast his vote.

Three Republicans also voted down the effort: Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., Ken Buck, R-Colo., and Tom McClintock, R-Calif.

Reps. Anna Eshoo, Pramila Jayapal, Sen. Schumer and the Department for Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

User’s Manual to what’s next now that the House impeached Mayorkas

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

The House has now impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Think of impeachment as an indictment. It’s up to the Senate to act as a "court" and judge whether the accused is guilty of the charges in a trial.

The impeachment of cabinet officials is rare. The House has now impeached multiple Presidents and federal judges. But only one cabinet secretary prior to Mayorkas. That was Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876. 

Don’t expect anything to start until late February or early March. The House will send the articles of impeachment plus the House "managers" over to the Senate to formally begin the trial.

SENATE APPROVES $95 BILLION FOREIGN AID BILL

"Impeachment managers" are House members who serve as prosecutors. They present the findings of the House before the Senate. Senators sit as jurors.

There is a bit of a ceremony to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate from the House and for the Senate to receive the articles. In this case, Acting Clerk of the House Kevin McCumber and House Sergeant at Arms William McFarland escort the articles of impeachment and House managers across the Capitol Rotunda to the Senate. The Senate gathers, usually with all senators sitting at their desks. Senate Sergeant at Arms Karen Gibson then receives the House entourage at the Senate door and reads the following proclamation to the Senate.

"All persons are commanded to keep silence, on pain of imprisonment, while the House of Representatives is exhibiting to the Senate of the United States articles of impeachment against Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas."

The articles are then presented to the Senate and the managers are introduced. That is all they usually do on the first day of a Senate trial– although FOX was told the Senate might try to squeeze everything into one day.

BIDEN’S EXPORT SUSPENSION ON LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS COULD SPIKE YOUR HEAT BILL

Under Senate impeachment trial rule III, the body is supposed to wait until the next day to swear-in senators as jurors. But FOX is told that could happen on day one in this instance.

According to Senate rules, the trial must begin the day after the Senate receives the articles at 1 pm in the afternoon. Trials are supposed to run Monday through Saturday. We had Saturday sessions in both impeachment trials of former President Trump in 2020 and 2021.

It is unlikely that U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts presides over a possible Mayorkas trial. Senate impeachment rule IV requires the Chief Justice to preside over cases involving the President or Vice President. In this case, it’s likely that Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-Wash.) presides over a Mayorkas tribunal.

Now we get to perhaps the most interesting question of all. How much of a trial is there? 

The Senate cannot immediately bypass a trial. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has announced that Mayorkas' trial will begin later in February. The House has named its 11 impeachment managers. Senators will be sworn in as the jury.

Senators can decide to hold a full trial, or potentially, move to dismiss or actually have straight, up or down votes on convicting or exonerating Mayorkas. The Senate could also send the articles to a committee for review.

SHOOTING BLANKS: HOW REPUBLICANS MISFIRED WHEN THEY TRIED TO IMPEACH MAYORKAS

In the 1998 impeachment trial of former President Clinton, late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) made a motion to dismiss the charges.

There will eventually be either a vote to convict/exonerate Mayorkas or dismiss the charges. Senate Republicans will watch very closely if Senate Democrats engineer any vote to short-circuit the trial. The GOP will take note of how multiple vulnerable Democrats facing competitive re-election bids in battleground districts vote.

If they vote to end the trial or clear Mayorkas, Republicans will likely enroll that into their campaigns against those Democratic senators. Keep in mind that FOX polling data revealed that border security was the number one issue facing voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. Republicans will examine the trial-related votes of Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) – if she runs. 

But the Senate must at least entertain the articles for a day or two – and then render some sort of judgment.

Joe Biden is ‘the big guy,’ Tony Bobulinski said during ‘unshakeable’ testimony amid impeachment inquiry

Posted on by Latest Political News on Fox News

Hunter Biden’s ex-business associate Tony Bobulinski testified that Joe Biden is "the Big Guy" and said the president "continues to lie" to the American people about his involvement in his son’s business dealings.

Bobulinski, who worked with Hunter Biden to create the joint-venture SinoHawk Holdings with Chinese energy company CEFC, and said he met with Joe Biden in 2017, provided "unshakeable" testimony behind closed doors at the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees Tuesday.

JOE BIDEN 'ENABLED' FAMILY TO SELL ACCESS TO 'DANGEROUS ADVERSARIES,' TONY BOBULINSKI TESTIFIES

His testimony, which came as part of the House impeachment inquiry against President Biden, lasted for more than eight hours.

A source familiar with his testimony told Fox News Digital that he testified that he "personally met" with Biden in May 2017 in Los Angeles on the sidelines of the Milken Conference for somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour.

Fox News Digital first reported on that meetings between Bobulinski and Biden in October 2020.

Joe Biden, on May 3, 2017, spoke at the conference, hosting "A Conversation with the 47th Vice President of the United States Joe Biden." 

Just days after the May 2, 2017, meeting, the now-infamous May 13, 2017, email, which included a discussion of "remuneration packages" for six people in a business deal with a Chinese energy firm. The email appeared to identify Biden as "Chair / Vice Chair depending on agreement with CEFC," in a reference to now-bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co.

The email includes a note that "Hunter has some office expectations he will elaborate." A proposed equity split references "20" for "H" and "10 held by H for the big guy?" with no further details.

FLASHBACK: HUNTER BIDEN BUSINESS ASSOCIATE'S TEXT MESSAGES INDICATE MEETING WITH JOE BIDEN

Bobulinski testified Tuesday that Joe Biden is "the big guy."

Bobulinski has, since 2020, said "the big guy" was Joe Biden. But IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who claimed that politics had influenced the yearslong federal investigation into Hunter Biden, also said "the big guy" was known to be Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, Bobulinski testified that from his "direct personal experience," it is "clear" that Joe Biden was "'the Brand' being sold by the Biden family.’"

"His family’s foreign influence peddling operation—from China to Ukraine and elsewhere—sold out to foreign actors who were seeking to gain influence and access to Joe Biden and the United States government," Bobulinski said in his opening statement, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital.

"Joe Biden was more than a participant in and beneficiary of his family’s business; he was an enabler, despite being buffered by a complex scheme to maintain plausible deniability," Bobulinski said. "The only reason any of these international business transactions took place—with tens of millions of dollars flowing directly to the Biden family—was because Joe Biden was in high office."

Bobulinski added: "The Biden family business was Joe Biden, period."

Bobulinski served in the U.S. Navy’s Naval Nuclear Power Training Command as a decorated master training specialist instructor; the Command’s chief technology officer, holding "Q security clearance" from the Energy Department and from the National Security Agency; and later served as a direct input officer for the command in his final Navy Fitness Report.

Another source familiar with Bobulinski’s testimony told Fox News Digital that he told committee investigators that Jim Biden, the president’s brother, was never concerned about the optics of Joe Biden’s involvement in the family’s foreign business dealings, saying he could claim "plausible deniability."

Bobulinski also told congressional lawmakers that he was never approached by the Justice Department, or Special Counsel David Weiss, to answer questions or provide testimony on anything related to the Bidens. 

"Tony Bobulinski articulated under oath that Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ the Bidens sold to enrich the family," House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said in a statement after Bobulinski’s testimony. "Joe Biden not only knew about his family’s dealings with a Chinese Communist Party linked energy company, but he also enabled them and participated in them. Tony Bobulinski testified he believes Joe Biden committed wrongdoing and continues to lie to the American people about his participation in his family’s influence peddling schemes."

BOBULINSKI OFFERED TO TESTIFY AT HUNTER BIDEN GRAND JURY BUT 'NEVER HEARD BACK': SOURCE

Comer went on to say Bobulinski "was unshakeable in his testimony today, providing facts Democrats didn’t want to hear."

"As such, Democrats put on a shameful display as they yelled at Mr. Bobulinski, cut him off, belittled him, and threatened him,

"Comer said, blasting his Democratic colleagues for  "behavior that I’ve frankly never seen before in a transcribed interview."

Comer said he will "soon release the transcript to provide the American people with transparency about Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s shady schemes and Democrats’ efforts to smear him for blowing the whistle."

But the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said Bobulinski "offers absolutely no testimony that indicates any criminal activity by President Biden… or evidence that President Biden was involved in Hunter Biden's businesses."

Meanwhile, as Bobulinski left Capitol Hill Tuesday, he turned to reporters and said: "It was a great day for the American people."

Next up before the committee as part of the impeachment inquiry is the president’s brother, Jim Biden, on Feb. 21. Hunter Biden is expected to appear for his deposition on Feb. 28.

House GOP votes to impeach Mayorkas, after failing first attempt

Posted on by Associated Press

The U.S. House voted Tuesday to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, with the Republican majority determined to punish the Biden administration over its handling of the U.S-Mexico border after failing last week in a politically embarrassing setback.

The evening roll call proved tight, with Speaker Mike Johnson’s threadbare GOP majority unable to handle many defectors or absences in the face of staunch Democratic opposition to impeaching Mayorkas, the first Cabinet secretary facing charges in nearly 150 years.

In a historic rebuke, the House impeached Mayorkas 214-213. With the return of Majority Leader Steve Scalise to bolster the GOP's numbers after being away from Washington for cancer care and a Northeastern storm impacting some others, Republicans recouped — despite dissent from their own ranks.

Johnson had posted a fists-clenched photo with Scalise, announcing his remission from cancer, saying, “looking forward to having him back in the trenches this week!”

The GOP effort to impeach Mayorkas over his handling of the southern border has taken on an air of political desperation as Republicans struggle to make good on their priorities.

Mayorkas faced two articles of impeachment filed by the Homeland Security Committee arguing that he “willfully and systematically” refused to enforce existing immigration laws and that he breached the public trust by lying to Congress and saying the border was secure.

But critics of the impeachment effort said the charges against Mayorkas amount to a policy dispute over Biden's border policy, hardly rising to the Constitution's bar of high crimes and misdemeanors.

The House had initially launched an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over his son’s business dealings, but instead turned its attention to Mayorkas after Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia pushed the debate forward following the panel’s months-long investigation.

The charges against Mayorkas would next go to the Senate for a trial, but neither Democratic nor Republican senators have shown interest in the matter and it may be indefinitely shelved to a committee.

Border security has shot to the top of campaign issues, with Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner for the presidential nomination, insisting he will launch “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” if he retakes the White House.

Various House Republicans have prepared legislation to begin deporting migrants who were temporarily allowed into the U.S. under the Biden administration’s policies, many as they await adjudication of asylum claims.

“We have no choice,” Trump said in stark language at a weekend rally in South Carolina.

At the same time, Johnson rejected a bipartisan Senate border security package but has been unable to advance Republicans’ own proposal which is a nonstarter in the Senate.

Three Republican representatives broke ranks last week over the Mayorkas impeachment, which several leading conservative scholars have dismissed as unwarranted and a waste of time. With a 219-212 majority, Johnson had few votes to spare.

Mayorkas is not the only Biden administration official the House Republicans want to impeach. They have filed legislation to impeach a long list including Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Never before has a sitting Cabinet secretary been impeached, and it was nearly 150 years ago that the House voted to impeach President Ulysses S. Grant’s secretary of war, William Belknap, over a kickback scheme in government contracts. He resigned before the vote.

Mayorkas, who did not appear to testify before the impeachment proceedings, put the border crisis squarely on Congress for failing to update immigration laws during a time of global migration.

“There is no question that we have a challenge, a crisis at the border,” Mayorkas said over the weekend on NBC. “And there is no question that Congress needs to fix it.”

Johnson and the Republicans have pushed back, arguing that the Biden administration could take executive actions, as Trump did, to stop the number of crossings — though the courts have questioned and turned back some of those efforts.

“We always explore what options are available to us that are permissible under the law,” Mayorkas said.

Last week's failed vote to impeach Mayorkas — a surprise outcome rarely seen on such a high-profile issue — was a stunning display in the chamber that has been churning through months of GOP chaos since the ouster of the previous House speaker.

One of the Republican holdouts, Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, who had served as a Marine, announced over the weekend he would not be seeking reelection in the fall, joining a growing list of serious-minded Republican lawmakers heading for the exits.

At the time, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who had been hospitalized for emergency abdominal surgery, made a surprise arrival, wheeled into the chamber in scrubs and socks to vote against it — leaving the vote tied, and failed.

“Obviously, you feel good when you can make a difference,” said Green, describing his painstaking route from hospital bed to the House floor. “All I did was what I was elected to do, and that was to cast my vote on the issues of our time, using the best judgment available to me.”

Republicans are hopeful the New York special election will boost their ranks further, but the outcome of that race is uncertain.