House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) has been the greatest force pushing for President Donald Trump's impeachment. For two years Schiff told us the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. After Special Counsel Robert Mueller delivered his report and found that no collusion took place, Schiff then shifted his focus to Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In that call, Trump asked Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, for corruption. After all, the vice president was handling international relations with Ukraine on behalf of the Obama administration and, at the same time, his son was being paid $50,000 a month by Burisma, a corrupt Ukrainian gas company. And Hunter had absolutely no natural energy experience.
Democrats have run with this idea that Trump threatened to withhold military aid to Ukraine unless an investigation into the Bidens took place. The released transcript showed that to be completely false and Zelensky himself said no quid pro quo took place, yet Democrats continued with their impeachment inquiry.
Now, it looks like Schiff is having a change of heart... or at least on paper.
During a Sunday morning interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Schiff said he would have to "discuss this with my constituents and my colleagues" before deciding whether or not the House should move forward with articles of impeachment.
"I want to discuss this with my constituents and my colleagues before I make a final judgment on it. But there are a couple of important things we need to think about and one is are we prepared to say that soliciting foreign interference, conditioning official acts like $400 of taxpayer money and White House meetings to get political favors is compatible with the office?" Schiff asked. "Because if we do, it is basically carte blanche for this president and anyone who comes after him. But are we also prepared to say that Congress will tolerate the complete stonewalling of an impeachment inquiry or our oversight because if we do it means that the impeachment clause is a completely nullity and, more than that, our oversight ability is really an ability in name only."
Recommended
Tapper pressed Schiff on the issue, reminding the congressman he previously said what Trump has done "is far more serious than what Nixon did."
"Explain how you have not come to the conclusion that the president should be impeached," Tapper said. "It sounds like you think he should be impeached."
Schiff reiterated that he wanted to hear from his constituents and colleagues about what was found during the inquiry.
"This is not a decision I’m making alone, but at the end of the day, this is a decision about whether the Founding Fathers had in mind this kind of misconduct when they gave Congress this remedy," he explained. "And I have to think that this is very much central to what they— they were concerned about, that is an unethical man or woman takes that office and uses it for personal political gain and sacrifices the national security to do so. If that wasn’t what the Founders had in mind, it is hard to imagine what they did."
Funny. Schiff is suddenly against impeachment. Maybe it's the continuous polling that shows Americans aren't in favor of impeaching Trump. Or maybe it's the fact that he's being reminded that he initially ran for Congress on an anti-impeachment platform. Either way, every American knows how he really feels about ousting Trump.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member