Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has accepted defeat — at least when it comes to impeaching President Donald Trump.
The House Intelligence Committee chairman spent the better part of the last two years pushing for Trump’s removal — but even he admitted that he doesn’t think impeachment proceedings would be successful. Still, he wants Democrats to try “nonetheless.”
Throwing in the towel
Schiff, who has long been one of the most outspoken critics of President Trump, told co-host Martha Raddatz on ABC’s This Week on Sunday that a move to impeach the president would likely be unsuccessful thanks to Republicans, who he claims are “willing to carry the president’s water no matter how corrupt, or unethical or dishonest the president’s conduct may be.”
That doesn’t mean, however, that the Democrats won’t put in their best effort.
“It may be that we undertake an impeachment nonetheless,” Schiff said. “I think what we’re going to decide as a caucus is what is the best thing for the country.”
A change in tone
Schiff followed his visit to ABC with an appearance on Fox News Sunday wherein the California Democrat laid out the options his party is considering post-Mueller.
“So we will have to decide, do we nonetheless go through an impeachment because to do otherwise would signal that somehow this president’s conduct is OK?” he asked. “Or do we decide that we’re better off doing the oversight through the context of oversight hearings by the various committees rather than a formal impeachment?”
Schiff added that he plans to “reserve judgment” on impeachment “until we have a chance to deliberate about it.”
That’s a major change in tone from the guy who promised to continue investigating President Trump even after the release of the Mueller report to find what the special counsel’s 22-month investigation could not. Now that a lightly redacted version of Mueller’s report has been released, it seems Schiff isn’t so confident anymore.
What happened?
Although Schiff is blaming the Republicans for thwarting his impeachment mission, it is likely that the real problem comes from the man Democrats have worshipped for months on end: Robert Mueller.
Mueller was unable to find any evidence of so-called “collusion” between Trump and the Kremlin, leaving Democrats like Schiff scrambling to defend the narrative they’ve perpetuated since before Trump even took office. But Schiff isn’t giving up yet — and he can’t afford to.
After all, what would he do with all his free time?
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