If House Republicans can muster the simple majority of votes they need to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, it will be an unprecedented moment in US history.
While there was one previous Cabinet official to be impeached by the House, the circumstances of that scandal, featuring Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876, are so different as to defy comparison, except in one way: Belknap was acquitted by the Senate as Mayorkas almost certainly would be.
Belknap was impeached for corrupt kickbacks: The most important difference between Belknap and Mayorkas is the purpose of their respective impeachment cases.
As everyone should remember from the two impeachments and Senate acquittals of former President Donald Trump, the Constitution’s impeachment clause allows for the removal of a federal official from office and bars that individual from office in the future for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
Belknap served during the so-called Gilded Age of US politics, and his crime was the corrupt financing of an extravagant lifestyle in the nation’s capital. He took kickbacks from a person he appointed to lead a trading post in Oklahoma.
GOP is targeting Mayorkas’ policy: The articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, on the other hand, outline policy differences rather than corruption, bribery or another crime. Republicans disagree with the administration’s approach at the border and argue that Mayorkas is not enforcing the laws.
Read more on how unusual this impeachment is
Source: www.cnn.com