There is absolutely no secret that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has beef with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who is likely to become the next Speaker of the House. We're talking absolutely none. Yet the Sunday shows keep giving Schiff a platform to once more complain about McCarthy, as was the case during Sunday's "State of the Union" on CNN, after he had already done the same the week prior on CBS New's "Face the Nation."
After referring to soon-to-be-former Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) as people he has "tremendous respect for," the conversation segued into talking about someone Schiff clearly does not have such respect for, with host Dana Bash bringing up McCarthy.
Bash mentioned how McCarthy, who has warned he would do so for months now, has doubled down on his promise to kick Schiff, as well as Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) off of various committee assignments. As she accurately reminded her guest, McCarthy has said he wants Schiff gone from the committee "because of your handling of the Trump-Russia investigation, and specifically that you repeatedly asserted that there was direct evidence of collusion, direct collusion, which didn't materialize."
Not only did Schiff claim that "most Americans would call that collusion," referring to his findings, but he claim to know McCarthy's true intentions, as he declared "McCarthy's problem is not with what I have said about Russia. McCarthy's problem is, he can't get to 218 without [Reps.] Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar and Matt Gaetz. And so he will do whatever they ask. And, right now, they're asking for me to be removed from our committees. And he's willing to do it. He's willing to do anything they ask."
Schiff threw the likely next speaker under the bus even more, venting about how "Kevin McCarthy has no ideology. He has no core set of beliefs. It's very hard not only to get to 218 that way. It's even more difficult to keep 218. That's his problem. So, he will misrepresent my record. He will misrepresent Eric Swalwell or Ilhan Omar, whatever he needs to do to get the votes of the QAnon caucus within his conference."
Again, Schiff threw almost the same exact fit during "Face the Nation" last week.
It's also worth reminding that their "record" is not so much the problem. It goes deeper than that.
In addition to Schiff repeatedly harping on the Russia collusion hoax and the Steele dossier, McCarthy has pointed out that "Eric Swalwell cannot get a security clearance in the public sector. Why would we ever give him a security clearance and the secrets to America? So I will not allow him to be on [the House Intelligence Committee]. There have been concerns with Swalwell since it was revealed he had had an affair with a Chinese spy, Fang Fang. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is also a repeat offender when it comes to her antisemitism, which her fellow Democrats have not sufficiently and universally condemned enough.
While she let Schiff go on with his rant, Bash did point out that it's not just the Republican leader who has a problem with him. Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who will be the incoming House Oversight Committee chairman, said in an interview with Punchbowl News that "I don't believe congressional investigations have a whole lot of credibility now," adding "I blame Adam Schiff for that."
Schiff dismissed Comer's legitimate criticism because he's someone who doesn't believe in investigations that Schiff has sought to prop up, as he equated Comer not just with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), but also former President Donald Trump, going on to claim that the three House Republicans "will do nothing but carry Donald Trump's water."
Bash concluded the segment by asking "if you are subpoenaed by Republicans when they take over, will you comply," to which Schiff did not outright say yes to.
"We will have to consider the validity of the subpoena," was his immediate response, before claiming " I would certainly view my obligation, the administration's obligation to follow the law" only to then once more complain about Republicans having "disrespected the law."
Another reason it would appear that the networks love Schiff is because he serves on the January 6 select committee. The committee recently found itself in the news over a report from The Washington Post, which Bash called "really remarkable," that Cheney, who serves as the vice chair, is focused far too much on Trump.
When told that select committee "staffers," whom the report highlighted were particularly angry, "were told the final January 6 report would likely almost entirely focus on Donald Trump, potentially leaving out a significant amount of your committee's report and investigation in other areas" and asked if it was true," Schiff responded "no," before clarifying "I mean, at least I certainly hope not."
Schiff spent the next few minutes trying to do what appeared to be damage control as Bash mentioned certain parts of the report and referred to them as "remarkable statements."
While Schiff acknowledged they were indeed "remarkable statements," he tried to distract from the disarray, by offering "I don't think the back-and-forth is particularly helpful the committee, and I don't want to engage in it." He instead spoke to the report that the select committee does plan on releasing, boldly claiming "I'm enormously proud of what we have done and know I will be proud of the final result."
Time will surely tell.
When it came to discussing certain intelligence law enforcement received prior to January 6, 2021, and responding to "are you meeting resistance on getting that in," Schiff attempted another form of damage control by not answering at all. "I don't want to go into our internal discussions. I think we will get to common agreement," he claimed.
Nevertheless, it appears that there is disarray, not merely from Democrats, but also their RINO allies.
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