Democrats erupted in chants of “Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “Adam! Adam! Adam!” on the House floor Wednesday after Republicans, on their second attempt, voted to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) over his role in investigating former President Trump.
Schiff has become the 25th member of the House of Representatives to be censured in U.S. history, and the first since 2010. The resolution to censure him also said that he would be investigated by the Ethics Committee for “falsehoods, misrepresentations, and abuses of sensitive information.”
Earlier this year, Schiff was ousted from from his position on the House Intelligence Committee, where he had previously served as Chair.
During the Trump Administration Schiff was a member of the House Select Committee on the January 6, 2021 insurrection upon the U.S. Capitol.
As then-Chair of the Intelligence Committee, in 2019 he announced a sweeping investigation of then-President Trump’s finances and Russia, and he was also a manager at Trump’s first impeachment, which was over Trump’s attempts to extort Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for dirt on Joe Biden in exchange for already-promised military aid.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who was a manager in Trump’s second Senate impeachment trial, over the then-President’s role in January 6, said the effort to admonish Schiff was evidence of the collapse of the Republican Party into an “authoritarian cult of personality.”
“We don’t censure members over a difference of opinion,” Raskin said.
But Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who had offered the resolution to censure, said, “With access to sensitive information unavailable to most members of Congress and certainly not accessible to the American people, Schiff abused his privileges, claiming to know the truth while leaving Americans in the dark about this web of lies.”
The 213-209 censure vote came a week after 20 Republicans voted with Democrats to table a similar measure that also would have fined Schiff $16 million. After that vote, Trump had posted a list of their names on his social media site, calling them “the Coward 20.” Further, Luna revised her resolution from last week.
It also comes as House Republicans were preparing to force votes on the impeachment of President Biden and potentially other members of his Administration.
Schiff himself called the vote along Republican lines to censure him “a badge of honor,” adding, “They wouldn’t be going after me if they didn’t think I was effective.”
