Kevin McCarthy says Pelosi should punish Adam Schiff for role in collusion narrative

In the aftermath of Russiagate’s collapse, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) could rehabilitate her party’s reputation by disciplining one of the top peddlers of the hoax.

If she had any desire to do so, Pelosi could remove Adam Schiff (D-CA) from his plum spot on the Intelligence Committee, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Monday.

But she probably won’t. Pelosi has already come to Schiff’s defense amid calls for him to resign or step down from the committee. For his part, Schiff has shown no willingness to accept fault. Instead, he insists that there is still evidence of Russian collusion.

McCarthy: Pelosi could punish Schiff

When special counsel Robert Mueller exonerated President Donald Trump of Russian collusion last month, Republicans swiftly turned the tables on the hoax’s perpetrators with calls for accountability. Schiff, who spent more time than most Democrats accusing Trump of collusion on national television, became a prime target.

The Democrat earned a new nickname from the president, who mocked “pencil neck” Schiff at a rally in Michigan, but real consequences have proven elusive. Incredibly, Schiff has shown no shame for his lies, and is, in fact, doubling down on his claims of collusion.

Credibility destroyed

McCarthy said that Schiff’s lies, and continued claims of collusion, have destroyed his credibility.

“It’s very telling that you have every single Republican on that committee [saying] they have lost confidence in you,” McCarthy said on Fox Business Network’s Mornings. “[Schiff] did not apologize. He actually challenged and went after the other members. This is an individual — how can you trust anything coming out of this committee?”

House Republicans on Schiff’s committee have been calling for Schiff to step down, a reasonable first step to restore the committees’ reputation. Schiff claimed before and after Trump’s exoneration that there is “evidence in plain sight” of collusion.

No apology

As he faces calls to resign from Republicans, Schiff is propping himself up as a warrior for the truth while castigating Republicans as partisans acting in bad faith — and finding an ally in Pelosi, who is refusing to punish him.

“[F]or him to sit there and lie about what he knows and not tell the American public and try to put fear in individuals — we have watched this in our history before, and we made a promise we would never allow this to go forward. Nancy Pelosi could remove him from chair because we see that he will not. He won’t even apologize for the lies that he made,” added McCarthy.

Far from apologizing, Schiff wants to subpoena Mueller to testify before Congress, something he said is “inevitable.”

Watch McCarthy below:

Dems rally behind Russia fraudster

Schiff has little reason to step down from the seat, resign, or even apologize, since his boss is doing everything possible to shield him from accountability.

The Speaker has not wavered an inch in her defense of Schiff, who she called a “patriot” who has done an honorable job searching for the truth. Pelosi said that Republicans attacking Schiff are just desperate “scaredy cats” who are on a meritless, partisan search-and-destroy mission.

“I think they are just scaredy-cats,” Pelosi said. “They just don’t know what to do. So they have to make an attack. They did the wrong thing. The American people know that. This is their own fear of the truth, their fear of the facts and fear of a patriotic leader [emphasis added] who is going to make sure the American people know the truth.”

Schiff has the whole party behind him, which makes sense, given that Democrats are still insisting that Trump is guilty of something — if not collusion, then obstruction or something buried in the 300+ page Mueller report. Pelosi’s defense of Schiff is in keeping with her party’s refusal to accept the findings of Mueller’s report, which concluded that Trump did not collude with Russia or obstruct justice. And her decision to stand behind Schiff would seem, at least, a tacit endorsement of his continued claims of collusion.

Meanwhile, Pelosi has shown little willingness to rein in Democrat-led congressional probes of the president as she leads a party effort to sow doubt about Mueller’s conclusions by casting attorney general William Barr as a partisan hack fulfilling a quid pro quo with the president. Democrats claim that Barr is suppressing evidence of collusion or other crimes in the report. Barr said the Mueller report will not be in the public’s hands until mid-April at least, with redactions, prompting Democrats to complain of a cover-up.

This hoax was never about truth and decency in the first place — why should Democrats change now?