Zimbabweans mobilized Monday for a major push to oust President Robert Mugabe, an increasingly isolated figure who faces impeachment proceedings and more street demonstrations even as he ignores calls to resign.
Zimbabweans watch a televised address to the nation by President Robert Mugabe at a bar in downtown Harare, Zimbabwe Sunday, Nov. 19, 2017. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has baffled the country by ending his address on national television without announcing his resignation. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
While there is a widespread consensus that the 93-year-old president should step down after nearly four decades in power, Mugabe has refused. The country has known no other leader since independence from white minority rule in 1980.
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Zimbabweans mobilized Monday for a major push to oust President Robert Mugabe, an increasingly isolated figure who faces impeachment proceedings and more street demonstrations even as he ignores calls to resign.
While there is a widespread consensus that the 93-year-old president should step down after nearly four decades in power, Mugabe has refused. The country has known no other leader since independence from white minority rule in 1980.
The generals have been involved in talks with him on a way out of the leadership crisis. While they acted outside his authority by sending tanks into the streets, they also projected deference in sitting by at the official residence, State House, as Mugabe told the nation he was still in charge.
Zimbabwe's association of war veterans, which is close to the military, said the generals are in an awkward position because their formal role requires them to protect Mugabe from civilian protesters such as those who poured into Harare's streets on the weekend. It is time for the military to step back and let the parliament and, if necessary, demonstrators remove the longtime leader, said Chris Mutsvangwa, head of the association.
Later Monday, the military said in a statement that it held further meetings with Mugabe since his speech in which he ignored calls to resign. The statement said Mugabe is working toward "a definitive solution and roadmap for the country."
Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party expressed confidence that it could impeach Mugabe this week if it secures the support of opposition lawmakers in reaching a two-thirds majority in parliament. On Sunday, the party's Central Committee stripped him of his ZANU-PF leadership post in a decision to be ratified at a party congress on Dec. 12-17.
However, some analysts believe the impeachment process could take weeks and would, if conducted properly, allow Mugabe to make a case in his defense.
But Mugabe is clearly hanging on to his office, as evidenced by the announcement by Mugabe's chief secretary that a Cabinet meeting will be held at State House on Tuesday morning and said all ministers should attend.
The conflicted role of the military, widely hailed as a savior after effectively stripping Mugabe of his authority last week, is under scrutiny after its generals flanked him during a televised address Sunday night in which he asserted that he remained the "commander in chief" and referred to "our well-cherished constitutional order."
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe delivers his speech during a live broadcast at State House in Harare, Sunday, Nov, 19, 2017. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has baffled the country by ending his address on national television without announcing his resignation. (AP Photo)
The generals have been involved in talks with him on a way out of the leadership crisis. While they acted outside his authority by sending tanks into the streets, they also projected deference in sitting by at the official residence, State House, as Mugabe told the nation he was still in charge.
Although Mugabe's powers as a wily, ruthless tactician have faded with age, his remarks seemed to reflect a keen understanding of the quandary of those trying to pry him from office: It would be easy enough at this stage to eject him, but perceptions that he is being illegally toppled, or is the target of a military coup, would undermine the credibility of any successor and muddy the international relationships of a new government.
Newspapers are held down by rocks to stop them blowing away at a news stand in Harare, Zimbabwe Monday, Nov. 20, 2017. Longtime President Robert Mugabe ignored a midday deadline set by the ruling party to step down or face impeachment proceedings, while Zimbabweans stunned by his lack of resignation during a national address vowed more protests to make him leave. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Zimbabwe's association of war veterans, which is close to the military, said the generals are in an awkward position because their formal role requires them to protect Mugabe from civilian protesters such as those who poured into Harare's streets on the weekend. It is time for the military to step back and let the parliament and, if necessary, demonstrators remove the longtime leader, said Chris Mutsvangwa, head of the association.
"We cannot continue to have the generals seen as arbiters of the political destiny of Zimbabwe. It is not their purpose," Mutsvangwa said.
Zimbabweans raise their hands in prayer during a Christian peace and prayer rally in central Harare, Zimbabwe Monday, Nov. 20, 2017. Longtime President Robert Mugabe ignored a midday deadline set by the ruling party to step down or face impeachment proceedings, while Zimbabweans stunned by his lack of resignation during a national address vowed more protests to make him leave. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Later Monday, the military said in a statement that it held further meetings with Mugabe since his speech in which he ignored calls to resign. The statement said Mugabe is working toward "a definitive solution and roadmap for the country."
In a news conference on state-run television, the military said it was encouraged by new developments that include "contact" between Mugabe and ousted Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has close ties to the military and is poised to succeed him. The military said Mnangagwa will return to Zimbabwe "shortly."
Terrence Chari poses as he mimics a painting of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in Mbare Harare, Monday, Nov, 20, 2017. Lawmakers with the ruling Zanu pf party gathered to meet on the fate of long time President Robert Mugabe, who has refused efforts to step down. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party expressed confidence that it could impeach Mugabe this week if it secures the support of opposition lawmakers in reaching a two-thirds majority in parliament. On Sunday, the party's Central Committee stripped him of his ZANU-PF leadership post in a decision to be ratified at a party congress on Dec. 12-17.
The plan is to move a motion for impeachment on Tuesday, set up a parliamentary committee to investigate the matter, and then refer it to all lawmakers for a vote by Wednesday, said Paul Mangwana, the party's deputy secretary for legal affairs.
The main charge against Mugabe is "allowing his wife to usurp government powers" and that "he is too old and cannot even walk without help," Mangwana told reporters.
Zimbabweans raise their hands in prayer, some wrapped in the national flag, at a Christian peace and prayer rally in Harare, Zimbabwe Monday, Nov. 20, 2017. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
However, some analysts believe the impeachment process could take weeks and would, if conducted properly, allow Mugabe to make a case in his defense.
Zimbabwe's polarizing first lady, Grace Mugabe, had been positioning herself to succeed her husband, leading a party faction that engineered the ouster of Mnangagwa. The prospect of a dynastic succession alarmed the military, which threw its lot in with Mnangagwa by confining Mugabe to his home and targeting what it said were "criminals" around him who were allegedly looting state resources — a reference to associates of his wife.
Zimbabweans are disillusioned by the country's economic collapse under Mugabe, who acknowledged "a whole range of concerns" about the national disarray on his watch, in his Sunday night address.
He said he planned to preside over the party congress next month, a statement that struck many as either brazen or oblivious because the party is maneuvering to replace Mugabe with Mnangagwa.
Zimbabwean Army General Constantino Chiwenga speaks to the media at KG6 barracks in Harare, Zimbabwe Monday, Nov. 20, 2017. The military has had President Robert Mugabe under house arrest for several days, and urged for calm. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
But Mugabe is clearly hanging on to his office, as evidenced by the announcement by Mugabe's chief secretary that a Cabinet meeting will be held at State House on Tuesday morning and said all ministers should attend.
At the University of Zimbabwe, students protested and refused to sit for exams, demanding that Mugabe step down. The spokesman for the Zimbabwe National Students Union, Zivai Mhetu, said they want all universities to close until Mugabe goes.
More protests are expected as the impeachment process unfolds, including some possible attempts to march to Mugabe's private home in Harare.
Zimbabwean Army General Constantino Chiwenga, center, speaks to the media at KG6 barracks in Harare, Zimbabwe Monday, Nov. 20, 2017. The military has had President Robert Mugabe under house arrest for several days, and urged for calm. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he doubts the ability of the ZANU-PF party, buffeted by factional disputes, to solve Zimbabwe's challenges. The opportunity for a fresh start will be squandered if an "all-stakeholders'" meeting doesn't take place soon, Tsvangirai said on his party's website.
He said ongoing confusion in Zimbabwe could undermine such an opportunity after moves by the military and others against Mugabe.
"It would be inimical to progress and the future of the country if all this action was about power retention at all costs," Tsvangirai said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate dismissed all impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday, ending the House Republican push to remove the Cabinet secretary from office over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border and shutting down his trial before arguments even began.
Senators voted to dismiss both articles of impeachment and end the proceedings, with Democrats arguing that the articles were unconstitutional. The first article charged Mayorkas with “willful and systemic refusal to comply" with immigration law and second article charged him with a “breach of trust” for saying the border was secure. The votes were 51-48 and 51-49, both along party lines.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the House Republicans’ charges failed to meet “the high standard of high crimes and misdemeanors” and could set a dangerous precedent.
“For the sake of the Senate’s integrity and to protect impeachment for those rare cases we truly need it, senators should dismiss today’s charges,” said Schumer, D-N.Y., as he opened Wednesday’s session.
Senate Republicans had argued for a full impeachment trial after the House narrowly voted in February to impeach Mayorkas for his handling of the border, stating in the two articles that he “willfully and systematically” refused to enforce immigration laws.
An outright dismissal of House Republicans’ prosecution of Mayorkas, with no chance to argue the case, is an embarrassing defeat for House Republicans and embattled House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who made the impeachment a priority. And it is likely to resonate politically for both Republicans and Democrats in a presidential election year when border security has been a top issue.
Republicans argue that President Joe Biden has been weak on the border as arrests for illegal crossings skyrocketed to more than 2 million people during the last two years of his term, though they have fallen from a record high of 250,000 in December amid heightened enforcement in Mexico. Democrats say that instead of impeaching Mayorkas, Republicans should have accepted a bipartisan Senate compromise aimed at reducing the number of migrants who come into the U.S. illegally.
House impeachment managers delivered the charges to the Senate on Tuesday, standing in the well of the Senate and reading them aloud to a captive audience. But they did not get a chance to present the case before the Senate dismissed it.
The historic nature of the trial — the first time in nearly 150 years that a Cabinet secretary was impeached — contrasted with the almost routine feel of the proceedings after senators have sat through two previous impeachment trials against former President Donald Trump in 2020 and 2021. And with a quick dismissal almost inevitable, the Senate never even set up the chamber for the occasion, which usually includes tables on each side for the impeachment managers and defense lawyers.
Still, there was a bit of the traditional pomp. As the trial began, senators approached the front of the Senate in groups of four to sign an oath book that is stored in the National Archives.
Schumer called for the votes to dismiss the two charges after Republicans rejected a proposed agreement for Senate debate time and several votes on GOP objections. Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt stood in the chamber and said Republicans wouldn't accept Schumer's offer because Democrats were “bulldozing 200 years of precedent" on impeachments by trying to dismiss the trial.
Angry Republicans called for several votes to delay the inevitable final outcome, but none of them passed as Democrats and three Independents held together.
Frustrated, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said “history will not judge this moment well.”
“This process must not be abused," McConnell said. "It must not be short-circuited."
At the same time, Republicans similarly moved to dismiss former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial in 2021, weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. All but five GOP senators — including McConnell — voted to end the trial, arguing it was unconstitutional because Trump had already left office.
After Democrats dismissed the charges, Johnson and members of his House GOP leadership team said in a joint statement that “by voting unanimously to bypass their constitutional responsibility, every single Senate Democrat has issued their full endorsement of the Biden Administration’s dangerous open border policies."
Even if the Senate had held a trial, Republicans would not have been able to win the support of the two-thirds of the Senate that is needed to convict and remove Mayorkas from office — Democrats control the Senate, 51-49, and they remained united against the impeachment effort. Not one House Democrat supported it, either.
Even some Republicans questioned the impeachment effort from the start. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney had said for weeks that he was considering voting with Democrats to dismiss the charges but ultimately voted with his own party. After the votes, he said he does not believe the charges rise to high crimes but he did not want to dismiss them because “it was important to engage in some level of debate.”
Mayorkas, who was in New York on Wednesday to launch a campaign for children’s online safety, reiterated that he’s focused on the work of his department. “The Senate is going to do what the Senate considers to be appropriate as that proceeds,” he said. “I am here in New York City on Wednesday morning fighting online sexual exploitation and abuse. I’m focused on our mission.”
Department spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg said after the votes that the Senate's decision to end the trial “proves definitively that there was no evidence or Constitutional grounds to justify impeachment.”
Johnson delayed sending the articles to the Senate for weeks while both chambers finished work on government funding legislation and took a two-week recess. Johnson had said he would send them to the Senate last week, but he punted again after Senate Republicans said they wanted more time to prepare.
At a hearing with Mayorkas on Tuesday about President Joe Biden's budget request for the department, some of the House impeachment managers previewed the arguments they would have made.
Tennessee Rep. Mark Green, the chairman of the House Homeland Security panel, told the secretary he has a duty under the law to control and guard U.S. borders, and “during your three years as secretary, you have failed to fulfill this oath. You have refused to comply with the laws passed by Congress, and you have breached the public trust.”
Mayorkas defended the department's efforts but said the nation's immigration system is “fundamentally broken, and only Congress can fix it."
The impeachment trial was the third in five years. Democrats impeached Trump twice, once over his dealings with Ukraine and the second time in the days after the Capitol attack. Trump was acquitted by the Senate both times.
Schumer said the charges against Mayorkas did not compare to those against Trump and were engineered to help the former president as he runs again this year. He said the Republican charges were policy disputes, not high crimes, and it was important to set a precedent.
“Secretary Mayorkas has not been accused of treason or accepting bribes or unlawfully attacking our elections or anything of the sort,” Schumer said. “He did not blackmail a foreign power to dig dirt on a political opponent. Nor did he incite a violent mob to wage an insurrection against the peaceful transfer of power.”
He called the Republican case “an illegitimate and profane abuse of the U.S. Constitution.”
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat, acknowledged that dismissing the trial was “a different Senate process," but said the “risk of normalizing what the House did is bigger than the risk of establishing a new precedent in the Senate.”
Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego, California contributed to this report.
In this image from video from Senate Television, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., signs the oath book during the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Washington. (Senate Television via AP)
In this image from video from Senate Television, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., presiding over the Senate acting as a court of impeachment, announces the results of the vote to adjourn the court of impeachment, at the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Washington. (Senate Television via AP)
In this image from video from Senate Television, Senate Sergeant at Arms Karen Gibson makes the proclamation during the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Washington. (Senate Television via AP)
In this image from video from Senate Television, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., speaks during the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Washington. (Senate Television via AP)
In this image from video from Senate Television, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., swears senators in for the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Washington. (Senate Television via AP)
In this image from video from Senate Television, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., signs the impeachment book for Secretary of the Senate Sonceria Berry during the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Washington. (Senate Television via AP)
In this image from video from Senate Television, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., presides over the court of impeachment and prepares to swear senators in for the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Washington. (Senate Television via AP)
In this image from video from Senate Television, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is sworn in to preside by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, during the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Washington. (Senate Television via AP)
In this image from video from Senate Television, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., swears senators in for the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Washington. (Senate Television via AP)
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before the House Committee on Homeland Security during a hearing on "A Review of the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request for the Department of Homeland Security" on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before the House Committee on Homeland Security during a hearing on "A Review of the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request for the Department of Homeland Security" on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is sworn-in before the House Committee on Homeland Security during a hearing on "A Review of the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request for the Department of Homeland Security" on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
House Impeachment Managers from left, Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., walk cross the Capitol Rotunda to the Senate chamber to deliver Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas' Impeachment Articles at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
