'You but indict yourselves': Schiff scorches 'frivolous' House GOP censure vote

Editor's note: Subquotation markings were added to former Congresswoman Liz Cheney's (R-Wyoming) statement.

United States Representative Adam Schiff (D-California) on Wednesday tore into House Republicans and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) for advancing a revamped version of their motion to censure Schiff for his role in the congressional investigations into former President Donald Trump.

CBS News reported that "the revised resolution calls for the House Ethics Committee to investigate Schiff, the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee and current candidate for Senate in California, for his alleged 'falsehoods, misrepresentations and abuses of sensitive information.'"

Congresswoman Ana Paulina Luna (R-Florida), the measure's author, alleged that "Schiff launched an all-out political campaign built on baseless distortions against a sitting U.S. president at the expense of every single citizen in this country and the honor of the House of Representatives."

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CBS noted that Luna's complaint states that "Schiff 'abused' the public's trust 'by alleging he had evidence of collusion' between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia and also accuses him of acting "dishonestly and dishonorably.'"

Schiff, meanwhile, accused Trump's obsequious GOP allies of scapegoating him as a distraction:

Donald Trump is under indictment for actions that jeopardize our national security. And McCarthy would spend the nation's time on petty political payback thinking he can censure or find Trump's opposition into submission. But I will not yield not one inch. The cost to the speaker's delinquency is high, but the cost to Congress of this frivolous and yet dangerous resolution may be even higher. As it represents another serious abuse of power, Donald Trump has threatened that any of you that defy him and vote against this partisan resolution will be met by a primary challenge. And he calls for my imprisonment. If a transient majority can punish and attempt to silence members who hold a corrupt president to account, there is no telling what further corruption of office will follow. And I say this to Speaker McCarthy and others who wish to gratify Donald Trump with this act of subservience or bend to his demands: Try as you might to expel me from Congress, or silence me with a $16 million fine, you will not succeed. You might as well make it 160 million. You will never deter me from doing my duty. No matter how many false justifications or slanders you level against me, you but indict yourselves. As Liz Cheney said, 'There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.'

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READ MORE: 'Stop lying': Congressman slams GOP colleague for ill-conceived plot to censure Adam Schiff