Tipsheet

Has the Day of Reckoning Come for Adam Schiff?

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  June 13, 2023 11:15 PM

As he gloats and smirks about former and potentially future President Donald Trump being arraigned in Miami earlier on Tuesday for his handling of classified documents, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) may soon be facing some very real concerns of his own. Last month, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) submitted a resolution that would expel her Democratic colleague from the House of Representatives, and soon after introduced a measure to censure and fine Schiff for pushing the "Russia collusion" narrative. 

The two members are now back in the news, as Luna called a measure to censure Schiff to the floor as a privileged resolution on Tuesday. The pinned tweet to the congresswoman's campaign account is a video of her reading out the resolution which lists out the abuses Schiff would be censured and fined for.

House Republican leadership is eager to vote on the matter, with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) having tweeted his support.

Such a vote is expected to come Wednesday or Thursday.

Democrats are looking to make moves to avoid the censure. While they could do so with a procedural motion to table the measure, that requires a majority vote, and Republicans control the chamber. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA)'s office said a procedure vote on the resolution will be held on Wednesday. 

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Schiff also sent out a letter to his Democratic colleagues on Tuesday, shared with CNN in which he tried to come off as eloquent as he begged for their support.

In it, he lamented that even just the "consideration" of the resolution "on the House floor will ultimately come at a cost to the country, our democracy, and to the integrity of the House of Representatives." He went on to claim it "is not only a terrible misuse of House precedent and resources, but a clear attack on our constitutional system of checks and balances."

The embattled congressman, as our friends at Twitchy highlighted, has also shamelessly fundraised off of the congresswoman's resolution in several tweets shared from his campaign account.

In a video message, Schiff mentioned many of the talking points in his letter. "The authors of the Big Like would attack me for telling the truth," Schiff claimed. "It's a resolution filled with Fox talking points and smears. But the real goal is to intimidate. To try to silence critics of the president," he continued. Has the man not looked in the mirror? 

Looking to further portray himself as a victim, Schiff went on to claim the resolution "takes issue with me for investigating Donald Trump, for impeaching him, for getting the first bipartisan vote to convict a president in U.S. history."

Claiming his critics "hope he will back down," Schiff assures us he's, unfortunately, not going away and "will never back down." Schiff then pivots to trying to claim that others are being targeted, as Luna and others are "trying to intimidate anyone else in the future from speaking out against the twice impeached, now twice indicted, disgraced former president." Told you he was gloating about Trump.

"This is an attack on our democracy," Schiff says towards the end as he parrots the main Democratic Party's talking point. But, he then goes on to add "even as it's an attack on me and the institution of Congress," despite how the move to censure is coming from members of the House itself. 

From his official Twitter account, Schiff also shared a clip of him gloating to CNN's Anderson Cooper about how Republicans brought the measure because they were afraid.

This would not be the first time that Schiff has faced consequences from Republican colleagues. In January, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) fulfilled his promises by removing Schiff from the the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, along with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). McCarthy has cited Schiff lying to the American people about the "Russian collusion" hoax as well as the Ukrainian whistleblower. 

Schiff is running to replace retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who announced in February she will not be seeking reelection. He was also hit with an ethics complaint back in late January for a campaign video he shared over Twitter.