For my money, there is no more detestable member of the House of Representatives than Rep. Adam Schiff. The Californian has spent the last half-decade spreading lies and soaking up fawning media coverage in his pursuit of his political enemies. And while ruthlessness in politics is hardly a unique concept, Schiff’s willingness to use the official workings of Congress to spread false narratives has been disturbing at best.
With Republicans an almost lock to retake the House in November, that’s left questions about what happens to Schiff once his party loses the reins of power. It’s been a given that figures like Rep. Ilhan Omar will lose their committee assignments, but would the GOP have the guts to go after someone who isn’t anti-Semitic but has grossly abused their power?
Current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has given us an answer: Schiff will be booted from his prestigious role on the House Intelligence Committee.
McCarthy obviously wants to be Speaker of the House, and moves like this may secure the support necessary to put him in that role. It’s good to see him not playing coy but instead just coming right out and saying that Schiff will be demoted and, to be sure, never has a man deserved that treatment more than Schiff.
His list of lies is long. More recently, Schiff was caught deliberately doctoring January 6th text messages to make them seem to be saying something they weren’t. And who can forget his performance for the cameras in which he lied about the call transcript between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky? Then there was his “mischaracterizing” of text messages involving Lev Parnas back during Trump’s first impeachment.
Even before that, during the Mueller investigation, Schiff was notorious for continually leaking testimony out of context in order to give the public a false impression that he had evidence he didn’t actually possess. While appearing on networks like CNN and MSNBC, the Californian congressman often asserted that he had conclusive evidence of Russian collusion as well. Obviously, given Robert Mueller found nothing of the sort, that also turned out to be a lie.
With all that said, I’d suggest that McCarthy isn’t going far enough. Yes, it’s nice to know that Schiff won’t be on the Intel Committee any longer, one of the most powerful bodies in Congress, but he deserves far more punishment than that. Schiff’s behavior has been so egregious that he should be completely stripped of all his committee assignments. He has shown no grace to his opponents and none should be offered to him. This is politics, not the church.
If McCarthy isn’t willing to do that, I’m not so sure he’s the right man to lead a new Republican majority come 2023. This is the time to go scorched earth, not be timid nor to take half measures. Let Schiff have it.