Democrats “diminished the institution of the Senate today and set ablaze the Constitution,” Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt said in a statement Wednesday after the chamber’s majority summarily dismissed impeachment charges against the secretary of Homeland Security without a trial.

“When Joe Biden and the Democrat Party talk about threats to democracy, they need to take a good long look in the mirror,” he added.

Senate Democrats voted in unison, 51-48 and 51-49, to dismiss the two charges against Alejandro Mayorkas to avoid allowing evidence of the open border and its dangers to be presented at a trial. Roll Call news agency called the historic development “a show of procedural hardball” from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his lockstep Democrat caucus.

Just hours before Schmitt tried in vain to force a trial for Mayorkas, he presaged what would happen in an exclusive interview with The Heartlander.

“I think Chuck Schumer is hell-bent on nuking impeachment trials forever in the Senate, setting the Constitution on fire, and bulldozing 200-plus years of precedent,” Schmitt said. “There’s never been an instance where we’ve not had a trial when articles of impeachment come over; it’s a very important thing that we do, regardless of where you come down on it, ultimately.”

What’s the best argument for impeaching, and ultimately removing, Mayorkas?

“The best argument for impeaching him is, he’s subverted the laws of the United States,” Schmitt summed up.  

“Our immigration laws are very clear about when you’re supposed to detain and deport, not catch and release. He has gone out of his way to violate immigration law time and time again, to the detriment of the American people: record fentanyl overdoses, national security risks. There are terrorists in this country now. He’s flying them in. They’re coming across the border unabated.  

“It’s a total disaster. And it’s on purpose. 

“And for those reasons, this guy should not only just be on the Mount Rushmore of the worst Cabinet members of all time, but he should be removed from office. 

“But that’s what we have a trial for, right? To hear all that evidence. And it looks like Chuck Schumer is afraid of that. He’s afraid of the news cycle.”

Indeed, the Biden administration, under Mayorkas’ direction, has been exposed as actually chartering special flights to bring illegal immigrants here. “The Biden Administration has admitted to flying as many as 320,000 illegal immigrants on secret flights into the U.S., in an effort to decrease the number of illegal immigrant encounters at the Southern Border,” reads a press release from House Republicans.

That’s beyond opening the border. It’s human trafficking.

Yet, Mayorkas “has no discretion when it comes to detaining people [who are] here illegally,” Schmitt argues. “It’s not a ‘may.’ It’s a ‘shall.’ And when somebody is a felon, they’re supposed to be deported. And he gave specific direction to his employees to not do that.

“That’s a big deal, and that’s why he’s been impeached. And that’s why we ought to have a trial. 

“This is not an opinion from some anonymous account on the Twitter machine. This is the House of Representatives, in the United States Congress, impeaching a Cabinet member. This does not happen all the time. It should be treated with that kind of gravity.  

“We swear an oath to uphold the Constitution, and the Senate is supposed to hear the evidence. And Chuck Schumer wants to dismiss this or table it. That’s never been done before.”

But it has now. So, the question must be asked: Since Secretary Mayorkas appears to be in such good standing with his president and with the Senate majority, why bother impeaching him in the first place?

Schmitt’s answer: Because that’s Congress’ job under the Constitution, regardless of the bearing of the Executive Branch.

“We have a separation of powers,” Schmitt says. “We have different branches of government with different functions. And regardless if Secretary Mayorkas is on Joe Biden’s Christmas card list, that has nothing to do with our job. Our job is to weigh the evidence of whether this person should be removed from office and convicted. And we should be given that opportunity to hear that evidence from the House managers. There should be witnesses. 

“And by the way, the Democrats were arguing for [impeachment trials] just a few years ago when Republicans controlled the Senate and the president was impeached. Guess what: There was a trial. But Chuck Schumer now views it very differently. And what he’s about to do is to forever change impeachment trials forever. He is nuking that process. He’s nuking it forever. So, that’s on him.  

“I’m going to do everything I can to defend the Constitution, because [what’s happening] is an insult to Americans.”