Rep. Adam Schiff (Democrat of California), former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and manager in the first impeachment trial against Donald Trump, was officially reprimanded in an internal party vote by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s vote on the motion of no confidence was 213 to 209. All yes votes came from Republicans while Democrats provided all no votes. Six Republicans voted “present.”
After the vote, a large group of Democrats in the House of Representatives gathered near the Speaker’s podium, where Schiff was to present himself for rebuke, and shouted “Shame, shame!”
The no-confidence vote was the unsurprising end of a two-week attempt by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) to formally admonish Schiff for various statements and actions that her resolution said were unfair to Trump. She had offered a similar decision last weekbut it was brought in after 20 Republicans, possibly concerned about the proposal to fine Schiff, crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats.
Luna’s nearly identical new resolution, sans the pretty language, says Schiff “abused” his position as the senior member of the House Intelligence Committee by “spreading false allegations that the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia” in 2016. Other allegations have also been leveled against Schiff.
While a special attorney and an inspector general have criticized some procedural aspects of the FBI’s 2016 launch of its investigation into Trump’s campaign, there is no question that they did The Russians took “active measures” to interfere in the 2016 US elections and that a senior Trump campaign aide, Paul Manafort, worked with a Russian agent by providing him with campaign data.
Schiff, who is running for the Senate, defended himself in the House and said he had done his duty to warn Americans of the danger Trump posed to national security.
“You honor me with your enmity,” he said of Republicans. “You will never stop me from doing my duty.”
Schiff specifically identified Manafort’s actions as one of the activities that constituted collusion and said Republicans refuse to be honest on the matter.
“You can’t call it collusion, although that’s the real name, as the country knows very well,” he said.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who served as manager in Trump’s second Senate impeachment trial, said the attempt to admonish Schiff was evidence of the Republican Party’s collapse into an “authoritarian cult of personality.”
“We don’t blame members for disagreements,” he said.
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) supported the resolution and accused Schiff of bias in investigating Trump and his campaign activities.
“He was hasty. He was biased. And he was wrong,” Ogles said.
Schiff’s censure was a victory for Trump, who posted on his social media page last week a list of supporters of the 20 Republicans who helped Democrats defeat Luna’s resolution. The supporter dubbed her “the coward 20”.
When the first resolution was filed, Luna said she feared some of her fellow Republicans had not read the full 574-word document or were unnerved by the proposal to fine Schiff $16 million.
All 20 Republicans who voted to pass the resolution last week voted against the new resolution on Wednesday.
Luna’s resolution — backed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who had proposed punishing Schiff on the day serial liar Rep. George Santos (RN.Y.) was indicted — could open the floodgates for others, open similar symbolic resolutions.
Right-wing Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has already done so filed an impeachment hearing against President Joe Bidenonly to be accused of copying by right-wing MP Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.).