“Little/Liddle’ Adam Schiff/Sc ##itt”—He’s Now Leading “Team Blue’s” Impeachment Investigation Against “Bully-in-Chief” Donald October 4, 2019
Demagogue Donald’s main talent sure isn’t domestic or foreign policy. It’s playing third-grade schoolyard bully against any of his opponents on the U.S. or international stage. Too many people are wrongly “fascinated” by his juvenile behavior in giving his critics insulting nicknames. One of Donald’s major opponents, Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), has received several taunting names from our “leader.” Demagogue Donald has labeled Rep. Schiff “Sleazy Adam Schiff,” “Pencil Neck Adam Schiff,” “Shifty Adam Schiff,” and the vulgar moniker “Little/Liddle’ Adam Schiff/Sc##itt (thehill.com, Savransky, R., 7/24/17, washingtonexaminer.com, 3/27/19, AP, 11/18/18, dailybeast.com, 10/02/19 Trump remarks).” Why? Because Schiff had the “nerve” to investigate Donald for possible collusion with Russia in Campaign 2016. Schiff had also attacked Trump for unconstitutionally nominating the ethically conflicted Matthew Whitaker to replace Jeff Sessions as the acting Attorney General before hatchet man William Barr, took that post. Schiff has not been bothered by these insults and has tweeted right back to Donald (See, AP, 11/2018). Many of Donald’s anti-Schiff tweets occurred while Schiff was the highest member in seniority (ranking member) of the Democratic minority on the House Intelligence Committee. After the 11/2018 mid-term elections, when the Democrats retook the House, Schiff became chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Demagogue Donald will now be on the receiving end of a political barrage from “Big (“bigly”) Adam Schiff.”
As anyone who lives in a reality-based world knows (Donald, Giuliani, and Attorney General Barr not included), a whistleblower accused Donald of using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country, Ukraine, in the 2020 presidential election. According to the whistleblower, Donald asked that country’s newly-elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in a 7/25/2019 telephone call to dig up dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. No such evidence against Biden or his son exists. Donald’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has now admitted that he was on that 7/25/2019 Ukraine call (Collinson, S., cnn.com, 10/02/19). In addition, the whistleblower’s report accused Donald and his White House staff of blatantly trying to cover up the transcript of this damning conversation. This report additionally accused Trump of illegally trying to use $400 million in military aid to coerce vulnerable Ukraine, fighting against Putin’s Russia, to start investigating the Bidens, or this aid would be withheld. There is strong evidence that Trump was already holding up aid to Ukraine before he asked that country “gangland style,” for this “favor” of going after Joe and Hunter Biden (See Collinson, S., cnn.com, 9/27/19, nytimes.com, Fandos, N., nytimes.com, Vogel, Kramer, & Sanger, 9/28/19).
Instead of the whistleblower’s accusation being immediately released to Congress, as required by a 1998 law that then Cong., now Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) helped write (nytimes.com, Stolberg, S., 9/25/19), Trump and his Dept. of “Injustice” under Barr first reviewed and ridiculously dismissed the complaint. They locked it down in a separate system reserved for real national security documents, not politically embarrassing ones (Fandos, nytimes.com). If there is a case of pure presidential abuse of power where both the crime and the cover up are worse than this one and require an immediate impeachment inquiry, we have yet to see it.
Until this whistleblower’s accusations surfaced, Speaker Pelosi had been against opening an impeachment investigation against Donald. She believed the findings in the Mueller report and other evidence were not that clear cut or understandable to the American public. After the whistleblower’s report, Pelosi rightly changed her mind as did most Democrats. Presently, 226 out of the 235 House Democrats support an impeachment inquiry (latimes.com/politics, 10/03/19). Although several House committees are investigating wrongdoing by Donald and will continue to do so in this impeachment inquiry, Speaker Pelosi has tasked the House Intelligence Committee, chaired by Congressman Adam Schiff, to be at the center of the impeachment inquiry. Meet Congressman Schiff.
Tenth-term Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff (59) currently represents California’s 28th Congressional District (CD). The CA 28th includes parts of Los Angeles’ Westside, including West Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Hills, as well as neighboring Echo Park, Silver Lake, and Los Feliz. The 28th also takes in the area of northern Los Angeles located between the San Fernando Valley and Pasadena. The cities of La Crescenta-Montrose and La Canada Flintridge lie in the 28th. The 28th’s largest cities are Glendale and Burbank. Parts of Pasadena are in the 28th as well as Verdugo Hills, Sunland, and Tujunga (Barone 2020 Political Almanac, Wall Street Journal, “Political History,” Review & Outlook, 10/02/07). The entertainment industry is the 28th’s economic pillar. Burbank has the headquarters of Warner Brothers, ABC Studios, and Disney, as well as many small entertainment and media companies. In 2018, Warner Brothers was Burbank’s largest employer with 5,000 jobs, followed by Disney with 3,900. Over 3 million tourists annually pour into the Burbank area. Middle-class Glendale contains Dream Works Animation. The busy Hollywood Burbank Airport is part of the 28th.
Glendale is ethnically diverse. It has the largest Armenian-American population of any congressional district in the country, at greater than 70,000. West Hollywood, home to the Sunset Strip, has a large gay community (Barone 2020, Washington Post, 10/10/07, Wall Street Journal, 10/02/07). The 28th is 25% Hispanic and 13% Asian-American. It has a “Super Blue” D+23 Cook Partisan Voting Index (PVI). In 2012, Obama thrashed Romney in the 28th by 43 points and in 2016, Hillary pulverized Donald here by a 50-point margin, 72%-22% (Barone 2020).
Framingham, MA native Adam Schiff was the son of a traveling salesman and lumber yard owner. Schiff grew up throughout the country. He graduated from high school in Northern CA and obtained his 1982 undergraduate degree from Stanford University. In 1985, he received his law degree from Harvard University. People joked about whether Adam would end up marrying a girl named “Eve.” Adam, in fact, married the former Eve Sanderson and they have two children (See Barone 2020). After graduating Harvard Law, Schiff worked as a prosecutor in the LA branch of the U.S. Attorney’s Office from 1987-1993. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Schiff gained attention by prosecuting a case against Richard Miller, a former FBI agent accused of “passing secret documents to the Soviet Union in exchange for a promised $65,000 in gold and cash.” Miller was convicted of that crime (latimes.com, Soble, R., 10/10/1990, Weinstein, H., 12/08/1989). In 1996, Schiff won election to the CA State Senate. During his one term in that chamber, he chaired that body’s Judiciary Committee. In his first two years in the CA Senate, Schiff enacted dozens of measures, including reforming the child support system. While in the CA Senate, Schiff authored a bill that eventually created the Gold Line light rail extension to Pasadena (See Barone 2020).
Even in Schiff’s first congressional race, impeachment played a prominent role. In 2000, Schiff challenged GOP incumbent James Rogan. Rogan had been one of the key House Judiciary GOP leaders pushing for Bill Clinton’s impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky affair in 1998. The Schiff-Rogan race became the most expensive House race ever at that time (since surpassed by other contests). At least $10 million was raised by friends and foes of Bill Clinton. This Glendale area seat, formerly a rock-ribbed GOP one, was demographically changing and the constituents were upset with Rogan’s stand on Clinton. Schiff won by an unexpected 9-point margin. He has easily coasted to re-election ever since, and his post-2010 reconfigured 28th district became even more “Blue (See Barone 2020).” In 2018, Schiff won by 56 points (Barone 2020).
In the House, Schiff, as previously mentioned, currently chairs the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Cong. Schiff is an active Democrat who has become a powerful voice on national security. When first elected to the House, Schiff joined the moderate-conservative Blue Dog Democratic coalition. He voted for the use of force in Iraq in 2003 as well as for the 2001 USA Patriot Act, the post-9/11 anti-terrorism law which gave the President broad new powers. However, as the years passed, Cong. Schiff has become one of the most liberal House members. He is an outspoken critic of Trump. He is for campaign finance reform and for police wearing body cameras so that law-enforcement shooting of unarmed civilians can be properly investigated. He has filed legislation to repeal another W Bush post-9/11 law, the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) because it is “outdated” and was “never intended to authorize a war without end.” In 2015, Schiff stated he “absolutely regretted his Iraq War vote” which had been based on “dead wrong intelligence (Barone 2020, cnn.com, 2/11/15).” Schiff, however, remains a strong supporter of national defense spending (votesmart.org). Schiff called the GOP push/witch hunt to investigate the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, a “colossal waste of time” and wanted Democrats to boycott this anti-Hillary nonsense. When the House leaders refused to do that, Schiff served on this select committee (Barone 14).
Schiff, with his district’s large Armenian-American population, has pressed for recognition of the WWI era Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Turks, a move that Turkey opposes (Barone 2020). Jewish-American Schiff supports Israel. He strongly condemned Cong. Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitic smears about Jewish “money” and “influence (See politico.com, 2/11/19).” After being briefed by CIA analysts, Schiff attacked Trump for saying there was “insufficient CIA evidence to link Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi (theguardian.com).” Schiff has repeatedly asked for answers from Trump for his alleged encouragement of Russian interference in Campaign 2016 (Barone 2020).
Cong. Schiff and his fellow Californian Speaker Pelosi have worked very closely on intelligence matters including this latest whistleblower case. Pelosi has been impressed with Schiff’s ability to handle super-GOP partisan Devin Nunes. Nunes was working too closely with Demagogue Donald and trying to derail House Intelligence Committee Investigations into Russian meddling in Campaign 2016 (See Barone 2020). Schiff, unlike volatile Judiciary Chair Jerome Nadler (D-NY), who did not handle Trump bully Corey Lewandowski very well, is not easily rattled. Schiff is knowledgeable and passionate about intelligence. Several House Democrats feel Schiff is the right person to lead the Ukraine investigation/impeachment inquiry. In Cong. Karen Bass’ (D-CA) words, Schiff’s “extremely smart. He is a sophisticated prosecutor. He’s the perfect one to lead that part of it (latimes.com, Wire, S.).”
Trump continues to melt down about Schiff and goes on calling him every name in the book. Donald ridiculously argues that Schiff should face “arrest for treason.” Straight-arrow Schiff remains undeterred. He has warned Donald and his crew that any attempts by the White House to stonewall or delay the House impeachment proceedings, including preventing witnesses from testifying about the whistleblower complaint will be considered “an obstruction of justice.” “Obstruction of justice,” remember, was a charge put in the articles of impeachment in 1974 against Richard Nixon (See huffpost.com, Fang, M.). We must all support Speaker Pelosi and Cong. Schiff’s impeachment investigation. We must do our best to check Trumpism.