House Republicans have found a way to thread the needle between their queasiness about defending what Donald Trump is actually doing and their urgent partisan need to always go to bat for him: They’re attacking House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff. It’s sooooo much easier than defending Trump’s actions, don’t you know.
Republicans are planning to force a censure vote against Schiff, which they will lose, being in the minority. But they will have Done Something to defend Dear Leader, at a time when actually defending him directly is difficult for many of them.
They even have the nerve to try to talk about “truth” as they try to defend a known pathological liar: “We’re going to exercise the limited tools we have in the minority, and we’re going to fight to get the truth out and hold [Schiff] accountable for falsehoods,” Minority Whip Steve Scalise told Politico. Dude, it’s more like the limited tools you have in defending the indefensible without (quite) coming straight out and saying “Look, all we care about is power and we’re going to do what it takes to hold onto it.”
Now the question is how much of the traditional media will go along with Republicans and report this as anything more than a cynical ploy and attempt at distraction.