Please stop censuring Rep. Adam Schiff. In a straight party-line vote, Republicans voted 213-209 to censure the Burbank Democrat, who was described as “delighted” at the result.
What are these people doing in Washington?
Playing politics is the answer.
It was a victory for Donald Trump, in case you wondered. He called for a primary challenge for any Republican who voted no.
So none did.
Hooray for the Don. Votes like this carry no punishment.
Meanwhile, as Schiff pointed out, maybe handing over internal polling data to Russian intelligence officials doesn’t count as colluding for purposes of the special counsel’s objectives, but it’s not something the chair of Trump’s campaign should have been doing. And why the hell is the House of Representatives, with George Santos among them, bothering to vote about this now?
It is a measure of Trump’s power over his party, and the power of symbolism over accomplishment in politics, that this is what the House of Representatives stood to do.
Schiff was reportedly delighted for a reason.
He’s running for Senate, and every time the Republicans turn on him, he turns to the likes of me — for money.
Schiff took to the House floor on Wednesday to defend his position, arguing that the censure resolution “would hold that when you give internal campaign polling data to a Russian intelligence operative, while Russian intelligence is helping your campaign — as Trump’s campaign chairman did — that you must not call that collusion, though that is its proper name.”
An earlier version of the measure failed last week after 20 Republicans joined Democrats in voting to table it; what changed was the removal of a $16-million fine from the text of the censure and Trump issuing his primary threat.
“Adam Schiff abused his position as Chair of Intel to lie and lead America through a national nightmare with the fake Russia collusion narrative,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted Wednesday.
The censure was a victory for Trump, who had called for primary challenges to any Republicans who voted against it, and another sign of his hold on the Republican Party.
Indeed. Imagine you’re working for one of the other candidates running for president right now. Trying to get some attention. And this is what — or who — is getting all the attention: Donald Trump.
He sucks every bit of oxygen out of the room. Between his current problems and his past problems, his manipulation of Congress, his indictments, his management and mismanagement of the people’s business, it is hard to focus on anything else.
You would be frustrated as hell. I sure would be. No matter what you do, he gets all the attention. There, on the House floor, they’re voting to censure Adam Schiff about allegations that date back to the 2016 campaign!
So, this is my question, for Democrats as well as Republicans: When we look back, as we surely will, at this summer, will we ask ourselves why we let him distract us from what really mattered, or will it be clear that he was what really mattered after all?
