www.nytimes.com
Open in
urlscan Pro
151.101.65.164
Public Scan
URL:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/us/politics/impeachments-weapon-partisan-warfare.html
Submission Tags: trump gop republican right wing extremist maga eu europe european union election democrat Search All
Submission: On February 12 via manual from US — Scanned from US
Submission Tags: trump gop republican right wing extremist maga eu europe european union election democrat Search All
Submission: On February 12 via manual from US — Scanned from US
Form analysis 2 forms found in the DOM
POST https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/us/politics/impeachments-weapon-partisan-warfare.html&apn=com.nytimes.android&amv=9837&ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&isi=284862083
<form method="post" action="https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/us/politics/impeachments-weapon-partisan-warfare.html&apn=com.nytimes.android&amv=9837&ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&isi=284862083"
data-testid="MagicLinkForm" style="visibility: hidden;"><input name="client_id" type="hidden" value="web.fwk.vi"><input name="redirect_uri" type="hidden"
value="https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/us/politics/impeachments-weapon-partisan-warfare.html&apn=com.nytimes.android&amv=9837&ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&isi=284862083"><input name="response_type"
type="hidden" value="code"><input name="state" type="hidden" value="no-state"><input name="scope" type="hidden" value="default"></form>POST https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/us/politics/impeachments-weapon-partisan-warfare.html&apn=com.nytimes.android&amv=9837&ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&isi=284862083
<form method="post" action="https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/us/politics/impeachments-weapon-partisan-warfare.html&apn=com.nytimes.android&amv=9837&ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&isi=284862083"
data-testid="MagicLinkForm" style="visibility: hidden;"><input name="client_id" type="hidden" value="web.fwk.vi"><input name="redirect_uri" type="hidden"
value="https://nytimes.app.goo.gl/?link=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/us/politics/impeachments-weapon-partisan-warfare.html&apn=com.nytimes.android&amv=9837&ibi=com.nytimes.NYTimes&isi=284862083"><input name="response_type"
type="hidden" value="code"><input name="state" type="hidden" value="no-state"><input name="scope" type="hidden" value="default"></form>Text Content
Skip to contentSkip to site index Search & Section Navigation Section Navigation SEARCH Politics SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEKLog in Monday, February 12, 2024 Today’s Paper SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEK Mayorkas Impeachment Case * Impeachment Vote Fails * Vote Count * What to Know * Articles of Impeachment * Alejandro Mayorkas Interview Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Supported by SKIP ADVERTISEMENT news analysis INSIDE IMPEACHMENT’S RISE AS A WEAPON OF PARTISAN WARFARE Impeachment was once seen as perhaps the most serious check on corruption and abuse of power developed by the founders. Now it looks in danger of becoming just another tool in partisan fights. * Share full article * * * Read in app The chances of Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, being convicted in the Senate seem to be almost zero.Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times By Peter Baker Peter Baker has covered three presidential impeachments and written two books about the subject. Feb. 1, 2024 Sign up for the On Politics newsletter. Your guide to the 2024 elections. Get it sent to your inbox. If the House follows through on this week’s committee recommendation and impeaches Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, it will be the first time in American history that a sitting cabinet officer has been impeached. But Mr. Mayorkas is not as lonely as all that. Republicans have also filed articles of impeachment against his boss, President Biden, as well as Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, while threatening them against Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. Indeed, threats of impeachment have become a favorite pastime for Republicans following the lead of former President Donald J. Trump, who has pressed his allies for payback for his own two impeachments while in office. The chances of Mr. Mayorkas, much less Mr. Biden, ever being convicted in the Senate, absent some shocking revelation, seem to be just about zero, and the others appear in no serious danger even of being formally accused by the House. But impeachment, once seen as perhaps the most serious check on corruption and abuse of power developed by the founders, now looks in danger of becoming a constitutional dead letter, just another weapon in today’s bitter, tit-for-tat partisan wars. Mr. Trump’s two acquittals made clear that a president could feel assured of keeping his office no matter how serious his transgressions, as long as his party stuck with him, and the impeachment-in-search-of-a-high-crime efforts of the Biden era have been written off as just more politics. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT “Impeachment has become more of a political and public relations tool than a serious mechanism of executive branch accountability,” said Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor and a former top Justice Department official under President George W. Bush. “It is of a piece with the decline of norms across Washington institutions and the ever-rising weaponization of legal tools to harm political opponents.” The current impeachment drives in the House have been nettlesome to the Biden team and certainly to Mr. Mayorkas, who issued a defiant seven-page letter before the House Homeland Security Committee voted for articles of impeachment against him along party lines this week. But where impeachment consumed the White House under Richard M. Nixon, Bill Clinton and Mr. Trump, it is barely an afterthought in the Biden West Wing. Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like. Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The Times. He has covered the last five presidents and sometimes writes analytical pieces that place presidents and their administrations in a larger context and historical framework. More about Peter Baker A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 3, 2024, Section A, Page 12 of the New York edition with the headline: Impeachment Rises As a Go-To Weapon Of Partisan Wars. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe * Share full article * * * Read in app Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Subscribe to The New York Times. SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE SITE INDEX SITE INFORMATION NAVIGATION * © 2024 The New York Times Company * NYTCo * Contact Us * Accessibility * Work with us * Advertise * T Brand Studio * Your Ad Choices * Privacy Policy * Terms of Service * Terms of Sale * Site Map * Canada * International * Help * Subscriptions Enjoy unlimited access to all of The Times. See subscription options