WASHINGTON — House Republicans voted Wednesday to reprimand Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff for his role in leading the first impeachment inquiry against former President Donald Trump.
The final tally was a 213-209 party-line vote. Following the vote, Schiff (D-Calif.) was ordered to stand on the House floor to receive a verbal rebuke, which Democrats interrupted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and chanted “Shame!”.
The author of the resolution was freshman Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL). As a result, the House Ethics Committee will now begin to investigate Schiff’s actions.
“The perpetrator of this web of deceit became mainstays on cable news, waking up every morning with one goal: to lie, lie, lie to the American people that there was direct evidence of Russia collusion,” Luna said on the House floor.
While Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation did not find any evidence of Russian collusion, it did find contact between Trump campaign officials and the Russians.
Schiff is running for an open Senate seat in California. During the Trump administration, he served as the chairman and ranking member of the Intelligence Committee. McCarthy, who is a Trump ally, removed Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from the Intelligence Committee.
“The question, my Republican colleagues, is not why am I the subject of this false resolution for doing my constitutional duty, but why are you not? Why are you not standing beside me, the subject of a similar rebuke for speaking the truth? Why did you not stand up to Donald Trump? … Will it be said of you that you lacked the courage to stand up to the most immoral, unlawful, and unethical president in history, but consoled yourselves by attacking those who did?” Schiff said on the House floor before the vote.
“I think once Donald Trump threatened that any Republicans who didn’t go along with his effort to censure me were going to get primaried, they fell in line. … They just cannot stand up to this most unethical, now-indicted president,” Schiff told reporters prior to the vote.
The move is just the latest that the House Freedom Caucus, led by several Trump allies, working to move quickly through the House. One fracture looks to be a vote on impeaching President Joe Biden and his Cabinet secretaries.
