During a meeting of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday morning, Republican members demanded that Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) step down as chairman. Reading aloud from a letter signed by nine Republicans, Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) accused Schiff of “having abused your position to knowingly promote false information, having damaged the integrity of this Committee, and undermined faith in U.S. government institutions.” The letter also suggested Schiff leaked nonpublic information to the media. Schiff, despite the recent findings by Special Counsel Robert Mueller that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, continues to “proclaim in the media that there is ‘significant evidence of collusion.'” Committee Republicans wrote that Schiff’s “willingness to promote a demonstrably false narrative is alarming.”
Schiff had what can only be described as a temper tantrum after the letter was read into the record. After regurgitating his usual and now, disproven, examples of collusion, Schiff scolded his colleagues. “You might say that’s all okay, that’s just what you need to do to win,” he shouted, as he glared at Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the committee’s ranking member. “But I don’t think it’s okay. I think it’s immoral. I think it’s unethical. I think it’s unpatriotic. And yes, I think it’s corrupt and evidence of collusion.”
On Wednesday night, President Trump told Fox News’ host Sean Hannity that Schiff should resign. “He should be forced out of office,” Trump told Hannity during a live phone interview. “He is a disgrace to our country.” Trump reiterated his demand in a tweet posted during the wee hours of Thursday morning. “Congressman Adam Schiff, who spent two years knowingly and unlawfully lying and leaking, should be forced to resign from Congress!”
Schiff appears to be unmoved, continuing to hunt down imaginary Russians who stole the election from Hillary Clinton. The title of his Thursday morning hearing is, “Putin’s Playbook: The Kremlin’s Use of Oligarchs, Money and Intelligence in 2016 and Beyond.”
To date, not one Democrat has suggested Schiff should step down as chairman.