Amna: Welcome to the newshour.
Ukraine is reeling tonight from
the deadliest Russian strike in
weeks.
It comes at a critical point in
this more than two-year-old war.
First a congressional aid
package for Ukraine is -- you,
Israel and Taiwan a key step
forward today potentially
putting the house speaker's job
in greater jeopardy.
Geoff: The senate began and
quickly ended the first ever
impeachment trial of a sitting
cabinet official for homeland
security secretary Alejandro
mayorkas.
Lisa Desjardins was there for in
joins us now.
Lots to unpack, lots to discuss.
Take us through what happened in
the senate chamber today.
>> It was never going to be a
surprise how this ended.
He was not going to be
convicted.
That was nothing question here.
It was a question of how and
hear the senate decided on a
party-line vote the articles
themselves were
unconstitutional.
Let me take you through this.
Tender Schumer offered at the
beginning to have some debate
time.
That is what Republicans wanted
at the least and votes on
procedural ideas.
Republicans including senator
Mike Lee of Utah and others
objected.
They want a full trial or
nothing.
Schumer outgained them and said
you rejected my offer.
Going to move straight to votes
on whether these articles of
impeachment are constitutional.
He knew he had the votes to
declare them so.
Reminding people I'm going to
look at those articles.
When you're talking about them
being unconstitutional, what are
they?
Those are the two articles we
have talked about.
Refusal to comply with the law.
Public and say he allowed the
border to be unsecured.
Second, breach of trust.
.
The idea he lied to congress
about that.
The lie to congress was the idea
the border itself was secure or
not.
All of that was declared
unconstitutional because the
vote was those are not high
crimes or misdemeanors.
This ended on the senate floor
with back over whether or not a
trial should happen.
>> It is beneath the dignity of
the senate to entertain this
nakedly partisan exercise.
One that both conservative and
liberal legal scholars agree
fails to meet the high standard
demanded by impeachment.
So I will say again, impeachment
should never, never be used to
settle policy disagreements.
>> Senator Schumer said in 2020
fair trial has witnesses.
A fair trial has relevant
documents as part of the record.
A fair trail seeks the truth.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
I will not assist senator
Schumer in setting our
constitution ablaze.
>> We spoke about game theory.
Today senator Schumer played
chess and he put Republicans in
a position where they could not
get to do what they wanted to
do.
>> Has this ever happened
before?
A senate impeachment trial
dismissed on constitutional
grounds.
>> That is the right question.
I asked the senate historian's
office and they told me they
could not answer because what
happened today was so
complicated they were still
getting their hands around it.
Senate Democrats said they don't
know of any time this happened
before.
I will say the reason this whole
thing is on resident it is
because of a man who was the
secretary of war in 1876.
He was the first cabinet
secretary impeached but he
resigned before he was impeached
and before he ultimately was
forced to leave office.
>> What precedent does this set
for future congresses?
>> This is why we are talking
about this at length.
The senate and process
determines policy.
.
We have seen that with the
supreme court.
We have seen that in the future
with what happens in the next
senate.
In this case when you're talking
to conservative and liberal
experts, they are concerned for
different reasons about the way
things went.
When you talk to conservatives,
they say mayorkas was someone
accused of a serious crime come
along to congress.
We talked about why liberal say
that is wrong.
They say that is something that
should have been tried and heard
in the senate.
>> If they like to congress as
mayorkas has done arguably on
several occasions when he says
the border is secure or people
who were found to have no right
to remain are going to be
removed, and when they have
mismanaged the portfolio to such
an extreme extent they are
causing significant harm to the
people, that is the only
mechanism congress has to remove
them from office.
>> Talk to folks who have
expensed impeachment, they say
that is nonsense and these
articles themselves are what was
dangerous.
>> Rather than alleging any kind
of misconduct or malfeasance
secretary mayorkas, they amount
to an incredibly wide-ranging
policy disagreements over how
this administration has handled
immigration.
For centuries, it has been
understood by scholars of every
political persuasion you cannot
impeach on that basis.
>> The question is how much of a
political weapon will
impeachment be.
Secretary America sent a
statement saying this proves
there was no evidence pit >>
Let's talk about the other
chamber, the house chamber.
The house speaker, has he made
more decisions about how he is
going to bring the foreign aid
package to the floor?
>> We were waiting for the bill
text and he did put out text
today.
Let me catch everyone back up to
speed with where we are on these
important foreign aid bills.
We have separate bills for
Ukraine, Israel and the indo
pacific.
.
The text of the bills is out.
There was a fourth bill about
tiktok and there should be means
to pay for the foreign aid.
I have not seen that text yet.
It could come anytime.
Today the speaker announced
there will be a fifth bill on
border security.
There is no question this is to
appease conservatives who said
why can we vote for eight on
other countries but not our own.
Speaker Johnson trying to work
his conference to get those
votes.
All of this is going to come to
a head Saturday.
.
That is when the speaker says to
his conference they should
expect votes on this.
>> Does he have the votes on
these bills and to keep his job?
>> It is a nailbiter.
It is not clear on either one.
Some surprising voices have been
moving toward the fence like
chip Roy of Texas.
Somebody who did not want to
talk about motion to vacate
today indicated he may be open
to it.
He is very unhappy with the
speaker.
The first big test could come as
soon as tomorrow or Friday when
they vote on the first
procedural motion.
Will Democrats help the speaker?
We are having this conversation
over and over but so much about
the ability of our own
government to function and
Ukraine to survive hinges on all
of this.
>> Our thanks to you and our
congressional team.
We appreciate it.
>> You are welcome .