On Wednesday, Republicans were once again fundraising off of attempts to paint House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff as the root of all evil and the head of a Secret Underground Witch Hunt. Half of the Republicans in the House seem to have authored their own bills seeking to censure Schiff for the crime of conducting hearings according to House rules, and this week several Republicans even upped their game to include the idea that their “censure Schiff” bills had been “sabotaged” by wily Democrats. Meaning: None of these measures could collect enough support to even reach the floor.
Schiff is a regular target of Donald Trump’s tweets and a focus of right-wing hate. He spent Wednesday on the pointy end of two jabbing fingers directed by Republicans invading the impeachment inquiry, and is vying to displace Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the most featured Democrat in Republican fundraising letters. So it shouldn’t be surprising that when Fox News reported on Schiff on Wednesday, it said … “As frustrating as it is, Schiff is following the rules.”
That’s right. Fox News judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano explained that not only was Schiff carefully crossing each T and dotting each I of the process, but the whole way in which the hearings are being conducted now is entirely in accordance with House rules that were passed by Republicans back in 2015. At the time, Republicans were deeply embedded in round eight of the Benghazi hearings, and had no appetite for revisiting worn-out topics in public. So the very rules that they claim are creating an “unfair” and “secret” process … are their rules. They are rules that some of those invading the House chamber on Wednesday, such as Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows, had a direct role in creating.
But Napolitano’s reluctant praise wasn’t the first time Republicans had to admit that they could find no fault with the process Schiff was following. Way back in May, as Donald Trump was chatting with Vladimir Putin and scheming to put the screws to Ukraine, Republicans were forced to admit that Schiff was handling his role as the head of the Intelligence Committee well.
That’s when Rep. Mike Conaway—the same Texas Republican Mike Conaway who on Wednesday was collecting mobile devices from Republican representatives who burst into a secure compartmented information facility carrying cell phones—was “praising Schiff for creating a newfound sense of comity on the Intelligence Committee.” Schiff managed things so well that when the Intelligence Committee sent out a subpoena for Attorney General Bill Barr to turn over the full Mueller report, that subpoena also carried the signatures of the its Republican members.
What did phone-collector Conaway have to say then? “Schiff probably deserves the lion’s share of the credit because he sets the tone as chairman.” Schiff did such a good job that he even got Devin Nunes to co-sign a request that the committee get all of the Mueller report background materials.
There has been no greater champion of following the process and supporting transparency than Adam Schiff. Republicans know that.
They also know that in just a few weeks, Schiff will emerge from this phase of the inquiry—the phase operating according to the closed-door rules that the Republicans created—and bring his evidence into full public view. That includes the testimony of Marie Yovanovitch, and Fiona Hill, and William Taylor. And they know that when that happens, Schiff will be as consistent, and persistent, as he has been from the outset.