Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in a video statement after he was censured by Congress fantasized it was House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) being censured, not him.
Schiff said after the vote to censure him passed, the subject of censure — him, in this case — is supposed to go to the bottom of the House floor, or well, to be reprimanded by members of Congress.
“Something very surprising happened. After the vote passed, all of a sudden, Democratic members moved down into the well,” he said. “What happened is, it seemed like 200 of my Democratic colleagues filled the well. I remember some of the members saying, ‘What’s going on? What’s happening?’ I wasn’t even sure. I knew that some of the members wanted to join me … but I wasn’t expecting such an overwhelming response.”
“And they shouted at Speaker McCarthy, ‘Shame! Shame on you! Shame!’ And it really seemed like Kevin McCarthy was the one being censured,” he added.
A video shows that when McCarthy announced the vote, Democrats tried to shout him down with chants of “Shame!” They also cheered Schiff and chanted, “Adam! Adam!”
🚨 BREAKING: The House has voted to censure Adam Schiff and he will now face an ethics investigation.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 21, 2023
The vote passed 213 to 209. Six voted “present,” including Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) and five Republicans on the House Ethics Committee. Since the resolution referred Schiff to the Ethics Committee for investigation, members voted “present” so as not to weigh in on the matter before it is brought before them.
Schiff continued:
And I have to say, I’m very grateful to my Democratic colleagues. I was proud to represent them and the caucus in investigating Donald Trump’s abuse of power. I represented the caucus in the impeachment trial, and I represented the caucus again on the January 6 committee. And I think this was their way of saying, “Hey, ‘You’ve been leading for us. We’re going to be there for you.” And I’m grateful to them.
Schiff asserted that Republicans were abusing the House’s ability to censure members and that it threatened to “diminish” it as an institution.
He claimed that their goal was to “go after people that are effective in standing up to them and standing up to Donald Trump.” They hoped to “chill others” from “doing what I did,” he said.
The resolution sought to hold Schiff accountable for pushing false allegations on numerous occasions that Trump’s campaign had colluded with Russia to win the presidency in 2016 while using his perch as House Intelligence Committee chairman to claim that he had “circumstantial evidence” of that collusion.
Schiff, who is running for a Senate seat in California, said the censure vote would not deter him.
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