Chaos erupts on House floor after Adam Schiff censured for ‘misleading American public’ over Trump-Russia

Bedlam broke out on the House floor Wednesday night after the lower chamber voted along party lines to censure Rep. Adam Schiff for amplifying claims that Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia.

Democrats surrounded House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) after the vote, crowding near the dais and chanting “Shame” and “Santos” as he attempted to read the resolution. 

“I have all night,” McCarthy said as he tried to ask for Schiff (D-Calif.) to present himself so he could be censured.

McCarthy’s repeated gavel bangs did little to stop the jeering, which lasted for roughly five minutes before Democratic members allowed the House speaker to speak. 

The censure resolution against Schiff, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was approved by a vote of 213-209 with six lawmakers opting to vote “present.”

Reps. Michael Guest (R-Miss.), David Joyce (R-Ohio), Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), John Rutherford (R-Fla.) and Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) — all members of the House Ethics Committee — voted present, as did Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.).

An initial resolution to censure Schiff failed 225-196 last week, with 20 Republicans voting to kill the effort.

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That resolution featured a provision to fine Schiff $16 million, half of the money taxpayers doled out for special counsel Robert Mueller’s collusion probe, according to Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who sponsored both bills.

The resolution voted on Wednesday scrapped the fine and made other modifications to win over members of the House like Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who opposed the initial version.

Schiff has decried the censorship efforts as “false and defamatory” and accused Republicans of retaliating against him for holding Trump accountable. He also dubbed it a “badge of honor.”

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“You honor me with your enmity. You flatter me with this falsehood,” Schiff said on the floor Wednesday. “Today I wear this partisan vote as a badge of honor, knowing that I have lived my oath.”

Republicans and Democrats also went at each other prior to the vote, illustrating bitter tensions in the chamber over the Russia probe nearly seven years after it was launched by the FBI.

“You are the party of George Santos. Who are you holding accountable?” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) chided his GOP colleagues. “Don’t lecture us with your projection.”

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“If Adam Schiff has a shred of human decency left, he would resign from Congress in disgrace. His tombstone should read of his failed career in Congress and should be one word: LIAR,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said.

“What really gnaws on the majority, what really bothers them is that Mr. Schiff was way better than anybody on their team at debate, at messaging, at least knowledge. He kicked their a–,” Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) said.

Democrats, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, also needled the Republican side over the lack of members present to deliver remarks, leaving eight-months-pregnant Luna to do much of the verbal jousting.

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Schiff served as a manager during the first impeachment proceedings against Trump, which went to trial in the Senate in 2020.

In 2017, the California congressman read portions of the now-discredited Steele dossier into the Congressional Record, and contended as late as 2019 that there was “ample evidence of collusion in plain sight.” 

Schiff was removed from the Intelligence Committee in January.

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Luna’s censure resolution came against the backdrop of special counsel John Durham’s release last month of his report on the FBI’s Russia investigation, dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane.”

The report found that “neither U.S. law enforcement nor the intelligence community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”

Durham testified publicly before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday about flaws he found in the Trump-Russia inquiry.

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Schiff is vying for the Democratic nod in the US Senate race to succeed retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

He has served in the lower chamber since 2001.