'I thought I’d seen everything': Schiff responds to failed GOP censure resolution

15 June 2023

Late Wednesday afternoon, the United States House of Representatives voted down a measure filed by freshman Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) to censure and fine Ranking House Intelligence Committee Member Adam Schiff (D-California) $16 million over his role in impeaching and investigating twice-impeached former President Donald Trump.

"The vote was 225 to 196 with 20 Republicans voting with Democrats to table the resolution," CNN reported, adding that Luna "would try again next week" with a revised version aimed at garnering more support among her caucus.

On Wednesday evening, Schiff posted a video reflecting upon his experience of Luna's failed effort.

"So today the Republicans brought up a resolution to censure and find me 16 million, and I thought I would tell you a little bit about what that was like to go through," Schiff began.

"First of all, you sit there with all of your colleagues in the House. The full House was present on the floor. That's actually pretty unusual. They read the resolution and in this case, it was basically a resolution of false and defamatory Fox talking points, kind of a hodgepodge of things attacking me for investigating him for his Russia efforts, attacking me, for investigating him for his Ukraine misconduct and essentially attacking me for impeaching and holding Donald Trump accountable," Schiff continued.

"But I had to sit there and listen to all these false statements without a chance to respond. Then the Democratic whip, Catherine Clark, moved to table the resolution, meaning make it go away. I thought that that vote would certainly fail, that Republicans wouldn't bring this to the floor unless they had the votes to pass it. But to my great surprise," Schiff recalled, "the motion table passed on a strong bipartisan basis. Twenty Republicans — roughly one out of every ten — voted to table this MAGA resolution. It was too extreme even for them. So that was, I suppose, a victory."

According to Schiff, he had no idea who Luna was.

"But, but, nonetheless, the author. I leave the House floor, I'm standing in the hallway talking to a gaggle of reporters who want to ask me what did I think about the failure of this thing, and the author of the resolution, — this, this Representative Luna person who I don't think I've ever met until today when she literally came wheeling by me in one of those scooters that you have when you injure your leg — and shouted out something of the effect that, you know, she wasn't done with me, she was gonna bring back a new resolution next week, and this time it would pass," Schiff explained. "And one of the reporters asked me, after witnessing this, this spectacle, 'has it always been like this or have things just gotten so much worse?' And I had to say, 'sadly, things have gotten so much worse.'"

Schiff added that "You can bring a resolution to censure anybody for anything, no matter how false and defamatory. If you have the majority, and they do, and they did. You had the most absurd moment of the day was watching a video of George Santos pleading for people to support the resolution to restore integrity to the House. I thought I'd seen everything. But in any event, it failed. They will probably try to bring it back next week. I guess they decided this was gonna be Trump's birthday present in bringing it up today."

Schiff believes that Trump's congressional supporters are "trying to intimidate me. They're trying to deter anyone who would stand up to Donald Trump. This had the blessing of Kevin McCarthy. It is dangerous to the House because it will mean an attack on our checks and balances."

Schiff thusly concluded that "I've got news for them. They can bring up a hundred resolutions to censure me. I'm not backing down. I'm gonna defend our democracy, whatever it takes."

Watch below or at this link.

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