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Floor Speech

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Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I would like to talk for a few moments about and I am going to have a motion about the impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas.

As you know, Madam President, our government is one of laws, not people--laws, not people. As you also know, the U.S. Senate is built on precedent and custom and history and the law, not political expedience.

We in the Senate are supposed to listen to the American people, not ignore them. One of the ways we do that is by playing by the rules we have all agreed to--all of the rules, all of the time.

Now, my Senate Democratic colleagues today or at least very shortly, however, may be willing to jeopardize centuries of this stability--the stability that this body has wrought and lives by--for short-term political advantage.

We all know what is going on here. We all know exactly what is going on here. For the very first time in our Nation's history, my Senate Democratic colleagues are seeking to table--maybe even dismiss--an impeachment by the United States House of Representatives of a sitting Cabinet official without holding a full trial. If my Senate colleagues do that, they will be summoning spirits that they won't be able to control.

Let me say that again--the United States House of Representatives. We are not talking here about some ``snow bro'' who lives off Chicken McNuggets and weed and happens to have an opinion. The United States House of Representatives, elected by all of the American people, spent months investigating our border policy and Secretary Mayorkas's role in it, and then they thoughtfully crafted and they passed with a majority vote two Articles of Impeachment. Now my Senate Democratic colleagues want to toss them out in the trash like a week-old tuna salad sandwich without hearing from either side.

In the more than two centuries that this body has existed, we have never once tabled an impeachment--not once. The Senate has never dismissed impeachment articles under these circumstances either-- neither tabled nor dismissed.

If the Senate dismisses these charges without a full trial, it will be the first time in the Senate's long history that it has dismissed impeachment charges against an official it has jurisdiction over without the official first resigning, and that is just a fact of history.

The Senate has the responsibility to hold this trial, and everybody in this body knows it. Yet my Senate Democratic colleagues seem willing to forfeit our constitutional authority in order to bury the evidence of how bad the border crisis is.

Now, I, for one, want to hear the House's evidence, and Senate Republicans are offering our colleagues across the aisle--all of whom I respect, by the way--a menu of options for how to hear that evidence and listen to Secretary Mayorkas's defense without eroding democratic institutions.

If Democrats set a new precedent by making an impeachment trial impossible, as I am afraid they are going to try to do, they will be silencing the voices of the Americans who elected them, and they will have to own the decisions they will be making and bear the consequences tomorrow, and tomorrow may come sooner than they can imagine.

Apparently, my Democratic colleagues are really leaning in on their double standards. Whenever protecting democracy--have you heard that expression?--or upholding ``the rule of law''--have you heard my Democratic colleagues talk about the rule of law? I have. I agree with them. Whenever they use those expressions but it becomes politically challenging, they seem happy to ignore the rule of law and the will of the people, and their political expedience is in full view today. I regret to say that.

We will see what my Democratic colleagues do with respect to my resolution and Senator Lee's resolution.

Senate Democrats, I am afraid, are silencing the American people who want their country's secure border back. The truth is that the American people are tired of the drug trafficking. They are tired of the human trafficking. They are tired of the sexual abuse of women and children. They are tired of the widespread illnesses. They are tired of the death. They are tired of the behavior of President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas with respect to the border. They are tired of the chaos. They believe it is chaotic by design, and they believe it is undermining their national security. And they are right. Now, the American people may be poorer under President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas, but they are not stupid. They are not stupid.

In total, more than 9 million people, foreign nationals, have crossed the southern border under President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas--9 million. That is four Nebraskas. Secretary Mayorkas doesn't have any idea who they are. He doesn't have any idea where they are. Customs and Border Protection also seized 53,000 pounds of fentanyl from 2021 to 2023. That is enough to kill every man, woman, and child on this planet, for God's sake--not the United States, this planet.

The southern border is an open, bleeding wound. Now, the majority of the House of Representatives reached that conclusion. That is why they voted to impeach Secretary Mayorkas. They have sent us their evidence, and that evidence alleges that Secretary Mayorkas's policies have made our immigration system septic. If I were Secretary Mayorkas, I would want to answer those allegations. As a Senator, I want to hear the evidence, and I know the American people want to hear the evidence.

These are serious charges. By tabling or dismissing the Articles of Impeachment without so much as a trial, like it was just spam in their inbox, my Senate Democratic colleagues are endorsing the Biden administration's lawless approach to the southern border. They are setting a precedent that the next administration can ignore the laws of Congress and the will of the American people as long as it advances the majority party's agenda. That is what they are saying.

Now, my resolution will give the procedures we need to set up the procedures we need to conduct this trial fairly and efficiently.

My resolution is modeled on the procedures that this body used during the second impeachment trial of President Trump. When President Trump's first impeachment came to the U.S. Senate, Senate Republicans were in the majority. You didn't see us trying to table that impeachment. You didn't see us trying to dismiss that impeachment because we believe in the rule of law all the time, not just when it is politically expedient. We heard the evidence. We did our job. And that is what we ought to do right now.

The proceedings set forth in my resolution are efficient; they are fair; they are honest. They will not uproot the longstanding precedent that we have given to Articles of Impeachment in the past. It will give the Articles of Impeachment serious consideration, as we have always done.

Here is my final point. If my Senate Democratic colleagues--let me say it again, each and every one of whom I respect--if they choose to ignore this impeachment, they will have placed their seal of approval on the lawlessness at the border and the chaos it has brought to so many American communities, and they will have ignored 200 years of Senate precedent--200 years. A charitable interpretation based on policy does not exist for what my Democratic colleagues are going to try to do. It is all based on raw, gut politics and they know it and I know it and everybody in this room knows it. Please don't do it. Please, my friends, don't do it. Please don't allow the Senate to rot from within. The American people deserve better.

Res. 623, my resolution that I just talked about; further, that the resolution be agreed to and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

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Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I will respond, briefly.

The U.S. House of Representatives--the U.S. House of Representatives--has found, after lengthy investigation, that the chaos at the southern border is manmade, and the U.S. House of Representatives has alleged that that man's name is Secretary Mayorkas.

We need to hold a trial.

Now, Senator Durbin is my good friend and, as usual, he is eloquent, and he sounds very confident that the evidence will exonerate Secretary Mayorkas.

How does he know? He hasn't heard the evidence, and he doesn't want to hear the evidence because he is scared that the American people might disagree.

That is what this is all about--raw, gut politics.

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