Senate rejects both impeachment articles against Secretary Mayorkas | The Excerpt

On Thursday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: The Senate has killed both impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison talks about President Joe Biden's comments on tripling the rates of tariffs on steel and aluminum from China. Former President Donald Trump is funneling campaign money into cash-strapped businesses. USA TODAY Breaking News and Education Reporter Zach Schermele breaks down the Columbia University president's testimony before Congress Wednesday on campus antisemitism. The FAA has lifted its ground stop of Alaska Airlines flights after system issues were resolved. Happy National Exercise Day! Want to stay fit? Here are some ways.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Thursday, April 18th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today the Senate has killed impeachment articles against the Homeland Security Secretary, plus Biden calls for tariff hikes on steel from China, and Columbia University's president testifies about anti-Semitism on campus.

The Senate has voted to deem both articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, unconstitutional. The move kills the charges against the Biden administration official, despite protests from Republican lawmakers. The Senate rejected the article, accusing Mayorkas of willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law on a 51 to 48 vote. Republican Alaska Senator, Lisa Murkowski, voted present, splitting from her fellow Republicans. The Senate dropped the second charge that Mayorkas oversaw a breach of public trust in a 51 to 49 vote. The White House applauded the move. House Republicans alleged that Mayorkas violated the Constitution by deliberately refusing to enforce border security laws but Democrats, some Republicans and constitutional law experts have argued that the GOP-led effort uses the impeachment process to settle a policy disagreement about how to address the nation's immigration system. They've accused many Republican lawmakers of effectively weakening a powerful congressional tool.

President Joe Biden is threatening to triple the rates of tariffs on steel and aluminum from China. Amid pressure from labor unions concerned about the survival of the US steel industry, as Chinese exports flood the global markets. For more, I spoke with USA Today, White House correspondent, Joey Garrison, who joined me from outside the White House. Joey, thanks for hopping on.

Joey Garrison:

Hey, thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So, Joey, what did President Joe Biden say here as it pertains to new tariffs for China?

Joey Garrison:

Yesterday, in a speech addressing the United Steel Workers Union, president Biden called for his trade representative to look at tripling the rates of tariffs on Chinese imports of steel and aluminum. This is often a policy we think of in terms of raising tariffs, kind of a hallmark of Trump, and really this is the first get tough tariff strategy put forward by President Biden. And the argument here is the Biden administration says that China is essentially overproducing a number of goods, among those steel. It's flooding the global markets, artificially lowering the prices of it, which has been battered in the US for decades. It's hurting the steel industry at home.

Taylor Wilson:

And how did the steel workers themselves respond to these comments?

Joey Garrison:

This is something they've pushed for a long time. So this is something that they appreciated to hear from President Biden. And there's no doubt that what Biden did yesterday in Pittsburgh, plays directly into the '24 election. Biden and Trump are both courting these working class voters, particularly in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. The Steelworkers Union endorses Biden, and historically, of course most unions endorse Democrats. But we've seen in recent elections that more of these rank and file union members often jump ship from the Democrats and have supported Trump. Trump is going directly after those. Biden is delivering them an economic populist message, shooting directly at those working class blue collar voters. He really put himself, his presidency, on the line to effectively save the steel industry. Another big issue happening as a backdrop on all this is US Steel, which is the most iconic brand of steel companies in the US, it's been based in Pittsburgh for a hundred years, there's a deal on the table for it to sell to a Japanese steelmaker. Biden opposes that deal and he reiterated that opposition yesterday.

Taylor Wilson:

Is there any concern, Joey, that these tariffs could negatively impact inflation?

Joey Garrison:

Well, the White House does not believe it will be inflationary. And obviously that's a big issue right now, because inflation has remained stubbornly higher than they would like to see for a couple of years now. One reason they don't think it will have an inflationary impact, is that Chinese steel represents a small fraction of the overall steel supply in the US. So although it's flooded the global markets, it hasn't directly flooded the US market. And so because of that, they don't think there'll be a huge price hike on steel and steel products in the US.

Taylor Wilson:

And so what's the timeline here, Joey, look like going forward? When can we expect these tariffs?

Joey Garrison:

That's still a little unclear and that's why I think it speaks to a lot of how there's a lot of politics going on her, as much as there is economic policy. We're in the middle of a review that happens every four years by the US trade representative of this particular tariff under Section 301 of the Federal Tariff Law. And so at some point at the conclusion of that review, the administration will decide whether to go forward with this tripling of the rate of these tariffs. And so with that said, it leaves an unclear time of whether we're talking a couple of months here or even longer before this would even go into effect.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Joey Garrison is a White House correspondent with USA Today. Thank you, Joey.

Joey Garrison:

Taylor, thanks for having me on.

Taylor Wilson:

Former president, Donald Trump's main 2024 White House campaign fundraising operation sharply increased spending at his properties in recent months, funneling money into his businesses at a time when he is facing serious legal trouble and desperately needs cash. Trump's joint fundraising committee wrote three checks in February and one last month to his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. Those totaled around $411,000 and another last month to Trump National Doral Miami for around $62,000, according to a report filed to the Federal Election Commission this week. Federal law and FEC regulations allow donor funds to be spent at a candidate's business as long as the campaign pays fair market value according to experts. Trump has been doing it for years, shifting millions in campaign cash into his business empire to pay for expenses like using his personal aircraft for political events and more. While the practice is legal, some campaign finance experts believe it raises ethical concerns when a candidate is generating personal revenue off running for office. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

Columbia University's president testified before Congress yesterday where she faced questioning about anti-Semitism on campus. The hearing came the same week. We learned that 2023 saw the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents against Jewish Americans ever recorded by the Anti-Defamation League since the Jewish Civil Rights Group began tracking attacks in 1979. They'll put yesterday's hearing in context. I spoke with USA Today, breaking news and education reporter, Zach Schermele. Zach, thanks for hopping on today.

Zach Schermele:

Thanks for having me, Taylor.

Taylor Wilson:

So, Zach, what happened at this hearing back in December and why have the Ivy League schools really been under this kind of microscope on this issue?

Zach Schermele:

Taylor, I want to start out by saying that just in general, Ivy League schools get so much outsized attention, which is part of the reason actually why congressional Republicans have been so eager to drag them into the spotlight here. So it's important to remember that these selective schools, located in certain parts of the country, are really a very small slice of higher education. That said, it's because these schools are so selective and located in more densely populated cities, that they really draw a vast array of different types of students, and they've really been hotbeds of protests among young people in this country since the start of the Israel Hamas war last year.

The hearing in December with Claudine Gay, the now former president of Harvard and Liz Magill, the now former president of the University of Pennsylvania, it became this giant political story that I'll admit even I didn't anticipate would blow up so much. And it happened largely because of a pointed line of questioning from representative Elise Stefanik, a New York Congresswoman who's a Republican. She asked those presidents whether someone calling for the genocide of Jewish people would violate university policies. And they said essentially, "It depends on the context," which drew a lot of condemnation from onlookers who said that kind of a statement is clearly an example of hate speech.

Taylor Wilson:

And yesterday was a contentious hearing. What was the biggest sticking point, Zach?

Zach Schermele:

It was clear that Minouche Shafik, the president of Columbia University, learned from that December hearing. One Democratic congresswoman from Oregon asked Shafik the same question that Stefanik brought up in December. "Would calling for the genocide of Jewish people violate Columbia's rules?" Shafik said, "Yes," without hesitation, as did the other administrators she was testifying with. And then Republicans tried to nail her down on a couple of different professors who have said controversial and at times antisemitic things in the past. So that was another thing that kept coming up. Then in one of the oddest moments I've experienced covering a congressional hearing, a Republican congressman from Georgia asked Shafik, "Do you want Columbia University to be cursed by God?" And Shafik chuckled and said, "Definitely not." And I point to that moment, Taylor, because it really underscores the fact that discrimination on campus is a serious issue, but congressional hearings have a tendency to veer into this political theater, which distracts, really, from getting at the meat of sensitive topics like this one.

Taylor Wilson:

The role of anonymous social media apps also came up yesterday. What did we hear about these?

Zach Schermele:

So, Shafik acknowledged that anonymous messaging apps have played a big role in stoking hate on Columbia's campus in the months since October 7th. And she called out one platform in particular, called Sidechat, which is wildly popular with college students. That platform has really struggled to contain hate speech since the start of the war. She said she'd welcome any improvement in content moderation.

Taylor Wilson:

Zach, did this hearing touch on any solutions to this problem of anti-Semitism on campus?

Zach Schermele:

It's tough on college campuses to police speech. It always has been. There's this tension between safety and academic freedom that really lies at the heart of what higher education is, and different schools handle it differently. So Columbia put together an anti-Semitism task force, which attempted to come up with a university-wide definition of the term. That's an effort administrators have pointed to frequently. They've also revised some of their events policies, which critics have said is suppressing anti-war protestors.

Taylor Wilson:

The Council on American Islamic relations received more than 8,000 complaints last year, the highest, Zach, in its thirty-year history. I'm curious, are there also concerns about Islamophobia on campus here, and will there be hearings focused on that?

Zach Schermele:

This was one of the concerns that Democrats raised. These hearings have really only been centered on incidents of anti-Semitism, which, yes, has been spiking on college campuses. But polling and what we've heard from education department officials also tells us that Islamophobia and incidents of anti-Muslim harassment have been on the rise as well. There's really no indication though that Republicans are very interested in that.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Zach Schermele is a breaking news and education reporter with USA Today. Thanks as always, Zach.

Zach Schermele:

Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a ground stop that applied to all Alaska Airlines and subcarrier flights after about an hour yesterday. The order was first instituted because of a software issue at the airline. Alaska said in a statement to USA Today, "This morning, we experienced an issue while performing an upgrade to the system that calculates our weight and balance. Out of an abundance of caution, we requested a ground stop for all Alaska and Horizon flights, which was instituted at approximately 7:30 A.M. Pacific time." The airline said residual delays were expected.

And Happy National Exercise Day. It's a good opportunity to think about how you can involve exercise to improve your health. And be sure to stay tuned to The Excerpt later today for a special episode about de-extinction. I interviewed the CEO and co-founder of Colossal Biosciences, Ben Lamm, about his company's goal of bringing the woolly mammoth back to life. You can find the episode right here beginning at 4:00 P.M. Eastern time, and thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Senate rejects impeachment articles against Mayorkas | The Excerpt