House censures Adam Schiff
The House Votes to Censure Rep. Adam Schiff for Misleading the Public
The Republican-led House on Wednesday voted to formally rebuke Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) for playing up allegations of bad behavior by Donald Trump across multiple investigations into the former president.
Passed by a 213-209 vote along party lines, the resolution reprimands Schiff for “misleading the American public and for conduct unbecoming of an elected Member of the House of Representatives.”
Democrats gathered on the House floor and chanted “shame, shame” as the vote got underway. They gave Schiff a round of applause when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called him to the well to read the censure.
🚨 BREAKING: The House has voted to censure Adam Schiff and he will now face an ethics investigation.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 21, 2023
Schiff is now the 25th member of the House ever be censured, and the third this century.
The four-page resolution, introduced by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), accuses Schiff of abusing his position and telling falsehoods about the Russia investigation. Is also mentions issues related to the Ukraine-focused impeachment inquiry against Trump.
Once passed, the resolution told Schiff to report to the well of the House chamber to hear the censure and called on the House Ethics Committee to investigate his conduct.
Six Republicans voted “present.” Five of them are members of the ethics panel, a C-SPAN producer noted.
6 House Republicans voted Present on censuring Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA)
5 are GOP members of the House Ethics Committee:
Chair Michael Guest (MS), David Joyce (OH), Andrew Garbarino (NY), John Rutherford (FL) and Michelle Fischbach (MN). Ken Buck (R-CO) also voted Present.— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) June 21, 2023
Luna reintroduced the resolution after a prior version of it was defeated last week when 20 Republicans joined with a majority of Democrats to table it.
A sticking point among GOP defectors last week was a clause that said Schiff should be fined $16 million, which is about half the cost of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference, if the House Ethics Committee found that he lied and abused sensitive information.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), one of the Republicans who voted against the censure last week, raised constitutionality concerns about the fine. The language was removed in the new version of the resolution.
Republicans have long accused Schiff, who served as chairman of the committee for four years, of being a repeat liar, particularly because he insisted there was evidence of collusion. GOP frustration with Schiff led McCarthy (R-CA) to kick him off the intelligence panel earlier in January after Republicans took over control of the House.
Schiff is now running for the seat held by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and has used the censure effort as a fundraising tool. He said he would wear the censure as a “badge of honor” and defended his comments about Trump.
“MAGA Republicans are going after me because I dared to hold Donald Trump accountable. These efforts to intimidate me will not succeed. I will always defend our democracy,” Schiff said in a tweet last week.
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