Since the release of Attorney General Bill Barr’s brief summary of the Mueller report that pretty much amounted to “I dunno, looks fine to me!” Republicans have been taking a victory lap.
Donald Trump has been tweeting nonstop, Sarah Huckabee Sanders shared a bizarre and disturbing “fake news” March Madness meme, and today, nine House Republicans signed a letter calling on Rep. Adam Schiff to resign from his position as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Trump put out a similar sentiment this morning, calling for Schiff to resign from Congress altogether. He opted for less formality than an official letter and just included it in his usual middle of the night tweetstorm.
Congressman Adam Schiff, who spent two years knowingly and unlawfully lying and leaking, should be forced to resign from Congress!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2019
In their letter, the Intelligence Committee Republicans accuse Schiff of being “at the center of a well-orchestrated media campaign claiming, among other things, the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government.” They criticize him for saying there was “more than circumstantial evidence” of collusion during interviews. And they really don’t like the fact he’s refusing to give up the House investigation now that Barr has released his letter, writing that “the findings of the Special Counsel conclusively refute your past and present assertions” that Donald Trump or those around him might be compromised.
Of course, that’s not true. Or rather, we don’t know if that’s true because we and the Republicans who signed this letter haven’t seen the Special Counsel’s report, only William Barr’s brief initial summary. And since Barr is a partisan player, appointed by Trump himself, we’ll forgive Schiff for not immediately letting this whole thing go.
And that’s basically what he told his GOP colleagues today.
I say this to the President, and his defenders in Congress:
You may think it’s okay how Trump and his associates interacted with Russians during the campaign.
I don’t.
I think it’s immoral. I think it’s unethical. I think it’s unpatriotic. And yes, I think it’s corrupt. pic.twitter.com/nTdgRVfssQ
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 28, 2019
“My colleagues may think it’s okay that the Russians offered dirt on the Democratic candidate for President as part of what was described as the Russian government’s effort to help the Trump campaign. You might think that’s okay,” he said. “My colleagues might think it’s okay that when that information was offered to the son of the president, who had a pivotal role in the campaign, that the president’s son did not call the FBI, he did not adamantly refuse that foreign help. No, instead, that son said he’d love the help of the Russians.”
He continues:
You might think it’s okay that he took that meeting. You might think it’s okay that Paul Manafort, the campaign chair … also took that meeting.
You might think it’s okay that the president’s son-in-law also took that meeting. You might think it’s okay that they concealed it from the public. You might think it’s okay that their only disappointment after that meeting was that the dirt they received on Hillary Clinton wasn’t better. You might think that’s okay.
You might think it’s okay that when it was discovered a year later, that they lied about that meeting and said it was about adoptions.
You might think it’s okay that the president is reported to have helped dictate that lie. You might think that’s okay. I don’t.
That’s not the end of Schiff’s list. (Make sure to watch the whole video.) There are so many things Trump and those around him did during the campaign (not to mention continue to do) that is 100% not okay. That much has been proven by the number of Trump’s associates who have been sentenced to jail time.
Just because William Barr has decided that Trump’s actions aren’t prosecutable–and again, we don’t know what Mueller had to say about most of these things–that does not make them okay, and it does not mean Congressman Schiff is going to give up.
(image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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