On the liberal broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC, the adversarial rhetoric continued to ratchet up on Wednesday from Tuesday morning and evening against the House GOP’s efforts to impeach Biden Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas over the border crisis as the networks used their morning news shows to screech there’s “no evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors” and the impeachment is leaving the Biden regime hamstrung as they “grappl[e] with thousands of illegal migrant crossings a day.”
ABC’s Good Morning America was the most obtuse. Co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos applied the same disgust to this impeachment that he has to the possible Biden impeachment: “Overnight, House Republicans move one step closer to impeaching...Mayorkas of his handling over the border, but with no evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. The battle right now.”
Stephanopoulos also had the open to the full segment, whining that there’s a “push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the southern border despite no evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors.”
Openly siding with his fellow liberals, Stephanopoulos claimed “Democrats and leading legal scholars across the political spectrum argue this does not meet the constitutional standard for impeachment.”
Senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott continued tipping the scales:
Even the lawyer that defended Donald Trump in his very first impeachment trial says the grounds in which Republicans are trying to impeach Mayorkas on are unconstitutional and vague. But still, Republicans are moving forward with a rare move that we haven’t seen in 150 years. This morning, House Republicans moving one step closer to impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas over his handling of the border.
Amid a flury of soundbites, Scott reiterated that “Democrats argue there is no evidence of high crimes” and Mayorkas defending himself by “arguing more migrants have been deported or expelled under President Biden than President Trump” even though “migrant crossings have doubled under the Biden administration, hitting record levels.”
Scott pointed out House Republican opposition to the Senate deal and then concluded this is happening even though “[t]he full details of that emerging border deal haven’t been released yet.”
CBS Mornings had co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King in the “Eye Opener” boasting that “Democrats say this is all politics” while co-host Tony Dokoupil decried “the politics there” with “[t]he showdown over the border crisis.”
“Republicans are accusing [Mayorkas] of failing to limit immigration at the southern border, but there is little, if any evidence, that Mayorkas broke any laws. And while House Republicans were working to impeach him over immigration, they were also saying they would block a bipartisan deal to help fix the issue,” he added.
Correspondent Scott MacFarlane painted Republicans, not Democrats, as political (click “expand”):
MACFARLANE: The issue of border security is now clearly tied up in campaign politics and last night’s marathon debate only further exposed the divide. Thousands of miles from the southern border where the Biden administration is grappling with thousands of illegal migrant crossings a day, House Republicans set their sights on the nation’s Homeland Security secretary.
HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN MARK GREEN (R-TN): Secretary Mayorkas has put his political preferences above following the law.
MACFARLANE: After an all high day hearing that went into the night, the Republican-led Homeland Security Committee approved two articles of impeachment against Alejandro Mayorkas —
CONGRESSWOMAN DIANE TITUS (D-NV): I bet our Founding Fathers are just rolling over in their graves.
MACFARLANE: — claiming he willfully failed to follow immigration law without producing evidence.
(....)
MACFARLANE: Democrats blasted the hearing as partisan gamesmanship in an election year.
CONGRESSMAN DANIEL GOLDMAN (D-NY): The House Republicans are doing everything they can at Donald Trump’s direction to sabotage any legislation because you don’t want solutions. You just want politics.
MACFARLANE [TO GREEN] Is this really a high crime and misdemeanor?
GREEN: Yeah, absolutely. When you’ve got a cabinet secretary who is totally disregarding laws passed by Congress.
(....)
MACFARLANE: Even if this impeachment vote goes to the U.S. House and passes, this effort is going to be knocked down by the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate, which will prevent Mayorkas from being the first cabinet secretary removed from office since the 1800s[.]
Dokoupil had a quick follow-up, telling MacFarlane that, since “voters rank immigration as one of their top issues” and it’s something he’s “heard” first hand, one “might...think the House GOP has an incentive to work with the Senate on an immigration bill, but it doesn’t seem to be working out that way.”
In the “Eye Opener at 8”, King proclaimed: “House Republicans vote to advance their impeachment effort against Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas without presenting any clear evidence.”
Like we saw on Tuesday night, NBC was pedestrian. Today co-host Savannah Guthrie said in a tease that “Democrats call” this impeachment “a stunt and a sham” while co-host Hoda Kotb merely worded Tuesday night’s meeting as the GOP “taking a key step in their push to impeach” Mayorkas.
Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles was brought out to explain that the formal vote out of committee took place “[s]hortly after 1:00 a.m. and after 15 hours of debate” on two articles of impeachment over Mayorkas’s conduct.
After noting “Democrats have said this is a political stunt,” Nobles went onto note a Senate trial, which is likely to be killed by Democrats, “during the general election further puts the spotlight on the issue that Republicans and former President Trump” hope “will help his campaign”.
To see the relevant transcripts from January 31, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
