House Censures Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff Transcript

Washington House Republicans dished out their version of punishment tonight to Burbank Congressman Adam Schiff. They voted to censure him claiming he misled the country during the house investigation of President Trump. But fellow democrats called the vote a disgrace. Kcal political reporter, Tom Wait, is here now with what the censure means and reaction to it. Tom.

And Juan, no surprise here. This was a vote along party lines, right? So the house’s censured members only 24 times in its history, but it is largely symbolic. Schiff keeps his seat and his powers. Democrats say house Republicans have been gunning for Schiff because of the leading role he took in the Trump investigations and impeachments. Schiff said after, he wears the censure as a badge of honor.

The resolution adopted without objection. The motion to consider is laid on the table.

As Democrats chanted its shame, house speaker, Kevin McCarthy, announced the results of the censure vote against Burbank Congressman Adam Schiff. The vote was down party lines Republicans intending to punish Schiff for leading the house investigation into Russian collusion with former President Trump’s 2016 campaign.

But the house of representative censures Adam Schiff.

Defiant Democrats continued shouting over McCarthy as he read the resolution.

Representative Adam Schiff will be censured with the public reading of this resolution by the speaker and that the committee on ethics shall conduct an investigation to representative Adam Schiff’s falsehoods, misrepresentations and abuse of sensitive information.

Congressman Schiff appeared to accept the censure as a badge of honor.

To my Republican colleagues who introduced this resolution, I thank you. You honor me with your enmity. You flatter me with this falsehood. You, who are the authors of a big lie about the last election, must condemn the truth tellers and I stand proudly before you.

Today, we are on the floor of the house where the other side has turned this chamber where slavery was abolished, where Medicare and social security and everything were instituted. They’ve turned it into a puppet show. A puppet show. And you know what? The puppeteer, Donald Trump, is shining a light on the strings. You look miserable.

Republicans claim Adam Schiff abused his power during the Russia collusion investigation.

This is someone who was the chair of the House Intelligence Committee and as the lead prosecutor of the impeachment of President Trump knew full well and had access to all of the information that the average American had no access to. And yet he abused his office to sow lies and to spread falsehoods about the entire investigation.

Professor of Politics, Jack Pitney, says the censure vote could end up helping Congressman Schiff, who was running to replace Senator Dianne Feinstein.

This is an enormous in-kind contribution to the Schiff Senatorial campaign and I would expect him to mention this frequently in the months ahead. To the extent that Trump is criticizing him and making him the face of the opposition, that is a huge asset in a Democratic primary.

The Mueller report made clear the investigation did not assess whether collusion took place because that’s not a legal term. The investigation found multiple contacts between Trump campaign and Russia, and the reports stated the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome.

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Hard to believe. We’re still talking about the Mueller investigation.

I was just saying that. And the collusion with Russia. Let’s talk a little bit about Schiff. He seemed very confident here. What happened today may actually be benefiting him down the line.

Right. Exactly. And he’s already fundraising off of this. He sent out, I believe it was an email tonight or on his Twitter, he posted something about raising money. I’ve been censured. So donate what you can from my Senatorial campaign. So I think like Professor Pitney said, this can only help when a Democrat is running and this looks like Trump versus Schiff and it sort of elevates him.

Yeah. Take every opportunity you can.

There you go.

All right, Tom, thanks so much.

Thanks, Juan.