WASHINGTON ― Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) made a panel of GOP state attorneys general squirm on Wednesday when he got them to all agree on what counts as impeachable offenses ― and then asked them about Donald Trump’s conduct.
House Republicans brought in three GOP state attorneys general to testify in a hearing in support of impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Republicans, who have been blaming President Joe Biden for a record surge in migration at the U.S.-Mexico border, are now refocusing on Mayorkas in their efforts to make the border crisis a major political issue heading into the 2024 elections.
The hearing itself was a stunt. The standard for impeachment, per the Constitution, is committing “high crimes and misdemeanors” like treason or bribery. Mayorkas, a cabinet secretary charged with carrying out immigration laws, as broken as they may be, has not been accused of any such crimes.
But Swalwell took the opportunity to ask the GOP’s witnesses ― Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, Oklahoma Attorney General Genter Drummond and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey ― what they consider to be an impeachable offense.
“Bribery?” Swalwell asked the panel. All three said yes.
“Extortion?” Swalwell asked. All said yes.
“Obstruction of justice?” he continued. All three said yes, though Knudsen said he thought it would require a conviction first.
“Inciting violence against police officers?” asked Swawell. Knudsen said yes, if there was a conviction. Drummond said yes. Bailey said he “would need more facts.”
And then, the California Democrat threw them for a loop. He brought up Trump’s conduct in recent years, and asked the attorneys general for their legal opinions on whether their party’s presidential front-runner deserved to be impeached over his actions.
“In the summer of 2019, former President Donald Trump used $300 million of taxpayer dollars to ask President Zelenskyy of Ukraine to get dirt on his potential primary political opponent, Joe Biden. He was impeached in the House for that,” Swalwell said. “Should he have been impeached for that?”
Suddenly, nobody had legal opinions about impeachment anymore.
“I’m not a member of this Congress. I’m not privy to all of that information,” the Montana attorney general said of the very publicized scandal. “I certainly haven’t seen a lot of those reports. This body chose to go forward with those proceedings, as is its purview.”
“It’s outside my lane,” said Drummond. “I’m just a simple attorney general from Oklahoma.”
“That’s beyond the purview of my testimony today,” said Bailey.
Kent Nishimura via Getty Images
Swalwell moved on, asking about Trump inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.
“He incited and aimed a violent mob at the Capitol. Six police officers would later lose their lives. One lost a finger. One lost an eye,” he said. “The president was impeached. Ten Republicans voted for that impeachment. Mr. Knudsen, should he have been impeached for that?”
“He was,” said Knudsen.
“He was impeached for that,” echoed Drummond. Asked if he believed that Trump should have been impeached for that, Drummond replied, “I don’t have an opinion.”
“He was acquitted of those charges,” is all that Bailey said.
The California Democrat called it “interesting” that the GOP state attorneys general came all the way to Washington, D.C., to share their legal opinions in support of impeaching Mayorkas, but had nothing to say about Trump’s past actions.
“You believe pretty clearly that [Mayorkas] can be impeached for his conduct, but when we go through pretty egregious conduct of using taxpayer dollars, of inciting and aiming a mob, having the greatest attack ever on this Congress, this Capitol, our Constitution, you don’t want to comment on it,” he told the witnesses. “At all.”
More broadly, Swalwell said their silence on Trump’s conduct shows how hollow the House Republicans’ effort is to impeach Mayorkas.
“They’re not interested in finding any solution to the border,” he said of the GOP. “We have witnesses who want to comment only on Mayorkas, but don’t want to comment on President Trump…. I just see a party that does not want to fix, but only wants the fiction.”