When it comes to lying about a man’s record, Rep. Adam Schiff should know.
The California Democrat spent the last years of the last decade telling a story with a straight face about there being evidence “in plain sight” about then-President Donald Trump engaging in “collusion” with Russia — a hoax that came up empty, despite special counsel Robert Mueller’s best efforts.
Schiff then embellished recorded quotations and shamelessly stage-managed investigations on his road to leading the prosecution in the first Trump impeachment trial that was based on a pretense so thin it’s barely remembered anymore.
Now, after amassing a personal record as contemptible as any that’s been compiled on Capitol Hill, and facing imminent removal from the House committee he currently chairs, Schiff is complaining to a compliant media that he’s the one who’s being victimized.
It’s not going as well as he probably hoped.
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Schiff’s comments came during an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Nation” when host Dana Bash asked about plans by California Republican Kevin McCarthy to remove Schiff from the House Intelligence Committee.
McCarthy, who is rounding up support to be speaker of the House when the new Republican majority takes over in January, has pledged to oust Schiff and fellow California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell from the intelligence panel.
He also plans to strip the demonstrably anti-Semitic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota of her seat on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Speaking to Bash on Sunday, Schiff played the victim card. He claimed that McCarthy is using him and his fellow Democrats as bait for support from Republicans such as Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona.
With only a slight GOP majority, McCarthy doesn’t have much wiggle room to get to the 218 votes needed to be elected House speaker.
Check out the interview here:
“McCarthy’s problem is not with what I have said about Russia,” Schiff said, with his usual disregard for the truth.
“McCarthy’s problem is, he can’t get to 218 without Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar and Matt Gaetz,” the congressman continued. “And so he will do whatever they ask. And, right now, they’re asking for me to be removed from my committees. And he’s willing to do it. He’s willing to do anything they ask.
“And that’s the problem. Kevin McCarthy has no ideology. He has no core set of beliefs. It’s very hard not only to get to 218 that way, it’s even more difficult to keep 218. That’s his problem. So, he will misrepresent my record. He’ll misrepresent Eric Swalwell or Ilhan Omar, whatever he needs to do to get the votes of the QAnon caucus within his conference.”
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The “QAnon caucus” is cute, and will probably go over big with Schiff’s lefty base, but the entire quote is as deceptive as Schiff always is.
McCarthy will “misrepresent” Schiff’s record? This is the Adam Schiff who’s spent four years “misrepresenting” – meaning “lying about” – Donald Trump’s record, “misrepresenting” the reality of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion, and just about anything else that would promote his party’s lust for power. And he’s accusing Kevin McCarthy of lying about his record?
It’s entirely possible Schiff actually believes what he was saying on Sunday. There’s no way of knowing what’s in another man’s heart, after all, even one that’s obviously a black pit bubbling with mendacity and malice.
But it’s also much more likely that Schiff is lying, deliberately and on national television, because he knows that a lefty outfit like CNN won’t seriously question him about anything, much less anything about his own dishonesty or the dishonesty of Democrats like Swalwell, the guy who got way too close to the suspected communist Chinese spy known as Fang Fang, or Omar, the unapologetic anti-Semite who laughed as an “anti-hate” resolution was crafted in the House specifically to deal with her public statements.
(In Omar’s weak defense, the resolution turned out to be laughable itself, thanks to Democratic cowardice.)
Schiff, being as shameless as ever, even tweeted out a version of his quote to Bash after Sunday’s interview.
And while he had plenty of supporters on Twitter – even in the Elon Musk era, the platform crawls with them like vituperative cockroaches — there was plenty of roasting, too.
Schiff has lied too many times and to too many Americans in his loathsome career to be taken at face value by any sentient human. The Twitter response showed it.
You’ll be removed from Intel Committee for lying and leaking, you frickin’ fraud. @FDRLST https://t.co/Zjuq3nPqyx
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) November 28, 2022
You’ve been on your way out the door of @HouseIntel since you started lying about the Russia collusion hoax in 2017. You continue to lie about it today. Your committee removal is the very least that should be done to you.
You’re a modern-day Rep Traficant without the epic hair. pic.twitter.com/BejdW95iRO
— #BillsMafia Caputo (@MichaelRCaputo) November 28, 2022
(The “Traficant” reference is to the late Ohio Democratic Rep. James Traficant, who led a scandal-ridden career that eventually put him in prison. Comparing Schiff to Traficant is an insult to Traficant’s memory.)
What ever happened to the evidence you claimed you had about Trump colluding with Russia?
You should never be allowed on committee’s. Any committees.
You’re a proven liar. Now get lost…— Charles Weber – AKA “THE Jew from Boca” (@CWBOCA) November 28, 2022
No, he’s removing you from
The committees because you’re a proven dangerous liar extremist. And it’s long overdue.— DecentAmerican (@DecentAmerican1) November 28, 2022
No honest person can argue the truth of those tweets – and many more like them. The fact that a proven fraud like Schiff remains chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is an enduring disgrace to the country.
The fact that a man like Swalwell, with suspiciously close ties to a suspected Chinese spy, is on that same committee, where all kinds of national security secrets are discussed, borders on the insane.
The fact that a woman like Ilhan Omar, with an obvious and indefensible enmity toward Jews, is on the Foreign Affairs Committee — which helps makes decisions that could mean the life or death of the state of Israel — is close to criminal.
Of course, there’s also an element of political payback involved, since the Democratic House majority under Speaker Nancy Pelosi has kicked Greene and Gosar off their committees. Republican retaliation will show Democrats that every action has consequences.
But that doesn’t change the fact removing Swalwell and Omar from positions of greater influence is simply good sense.
And removing Schiff from a committee he has abused for four years, and done great harm to the country while he was at it, is simply a moral imperative.
And that’s the truth – whether a liar like Schiff knows it or not.
CORRECTION, Dec. 4, 2022: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of votes needed to become speaker of the House of Representatives.