Schiff angrily pushes back against GOP calls for him to step down

Source: The Hill | March 28, 2019 | Morgan Chalfant,Jacqueline Thomsen and Olivia Beavers

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) aggressively pushed back at calls for him to step down from President Trump and other Republicans, defending his past comments by lighting into the president and his family and campaign over its contacts with Russia.

Schiff at the opening of an Intelligence Committee hearing on Russia listed contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia that he described as being “not OK,” signaling he’ll fiercely defend himself from the calls to end his chairmanship.

“My colleagues may think it is OK the president’s son was offered dirt as part of an effort to help Trump,” Schiff said in his statement, pausing at times for dramatic effect.

“You might think it is OK. I don’t,” Schiff added, his voice rising as he went on.

Schiff spoke after one of the panel’s senior members, in a striking display, called for him to step down.

Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) said Schiff had lost confidence in the panel by promoting a “demonstrably false” narrative that has damaged the “integrity” of their panel.

“The findings of the special counsel conclusively refute your past and present assertions and have exposed you as abused your position to knowingly promote false information,” Conaway said.

Conaway also introduced a letter signed by all nine Republican members of the committee calling for Shiff’s resignation. Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), the top Republican on the panel who has had a fraught relationship with Schiff, was among the signatories.

Schiff, when he was the panel’s ranking member, called on Nunes to step aside in 2017 amid questions about Nunes’s communications with the White House.

“We have no faith in your ability to discharge your duties in a manner consistent with your constitutional responsibility and urge your immediate resignation as chairman of this committee,” Conaway said.

The explosive moment came days after Attorney General William Barr notified Congress that Mueller’s investigation did not find evidence to conclude that members of the Trump campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election.

Trump and his GOP allies have seized on the revelation, claiming it exonerates Trump and attacking Schiff and other Democrats who described what they viewed as evidence of collusion over the course of Mueller’s 22-month probe.

The president earlier in a tweet on Thursday called for Schiff’s resignation from Congress.

“Congressman Adam Schiff, who spent two years knowingly and unlawfully lying and leaking, should be forced to resign from Congress!” Trump said.

Schiff has said he plans to move forward with the panel’s sprawling investigation into Trump’s links to Russia, financial and otherwise, and allegations the president could be potentially “compromised” by the Kremlin or another foreign power.

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