Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told lawmakers that a pending vote to censure him would be a “badge of honor” as he characterized the partisan effort as an attempt to punish him for trying to hold Donald Trump accountable.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) has led the censure resolution, accusing Schiff of abusing his privileges as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to “lie, lie, lie to the American people that there was direct evidence of collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016. She noted that Schiff was a frequent guest on cable TV news and that he has continued to raise money off of Trump-Russia claims.
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Luna’s attempt to pass a censure resolution last week stalled out in the face of Republican opposition. But she revised the resolution to remove a $16 million fine on Schiff.
A final vote on the resolution is scheduled for later on Wednesday, after an effort to table it was rejected in a party line vote. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this year moved to pull Schiff off the House Intelligence Committee.
But the attention from the censure vote could end up helping Schiff as he runs in the California primary race to succeed Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Earlier in the day, at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, he had several contentious moments of questioning of John Durham, the special counsel assigned to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe. Some of the clips quickly went viral.
On the floor of the House, Schiff said that “if there is a cause to censure in this House, and there is, it should be directed at those in this body who sought to overturn a free and fair election.”
He added, “Will it be said of you that you lacked the courage to stand up to the most immoral, unlawful and unethical president in history, but consoled yourselves by attacking those who did. Today I wear this partisan vote as a badge of honor, knowing that I have lived my oath, knowing I have done my duty to hold a dangerous and out of control president accountable, and knowing that I would do so again in a heartbeat.”
A censure does not remove a member from Congress, but strips them of any committee chairs they hold, which Schiff does not. Schiff has cited the censure in campaign appeals.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said that the censure effort was an attempt to deflect from Trump’s own legal troubles. He noted that the former president had threatened to enlist primary challengers to any Republican who voted against the censure resolution. He also said that Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who oversaw the Trump-Russia investigation, did not render a conclusion on whether there was collusion because that was not a legal term. He said that the question of collusion is a matter of opinion, and “we don’t censure over differences of opinion,” Raskin said. Mueller told members of Congress in 2019 that there was not enough evidence to charge any member of the Trump campaign with a criminal conspiracy.
In addition to his role on the House Intelligence Committee, Schiff served as the lead manager of Trump’s first impeachment. The Senate ultimately voted to acquit Trump.
Schiff is facing two other House Democrats in the Senate primary, Barbara Lee and Katie Porter.
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