When Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California decided to join the House Intelligence Committee in 2008, leading an impeachment inquiry one day wasn’t quite what he anticipated.
„He wanted to go on the Intelligence Committee for two principle reasons: Number one, it was bipartisan, and number two, it was quiet,“ said former Democratic Rep. Steve Israel of New York, a close Schiff friend. „And so I often say to him, ‚How did that work out for you, buddy?‘ “
For Schiff, it did not work out as expected.
„It feels at times like it’s being in the eye of the hurricane,“ Schiff told CNN’s Gloria Borger. „You can never tell when you’re going to step out of the eye and into gale-force wind.“
Those winds have often come from the White House, with President Donald Trump calling for him to resign and even be investigated for treason.
~Leading the House impeachment inquiry is not where Adam Schiff expected to be~
„I can’t even keep up with the President’s Twitter attacks on me,“ Schiff said, adding that his staff no longer bothers to send him all of the President’s tweets. „They’re just too numerous.“ The attacks only intensified after Schiff changed his mind about impeaching the President. During the Russia investigation, Schiff hadn’t been sold that impeachment was the best course of action.
„I always thought the strongest argument for impeachment was also the strongest argument against it, which is what does it say if we don’t impeach — what does it say about whether this kind of conduct is compatible with the office? But what does it say if he’s tried and acquitted?“ Schiff asked.
But then came Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian President.
„What made this a necessity for me and so many of my colleagues is that if the President believes that he can abuse his office, the power of that office, he can fail to defend our national security and there is no accountability, even if the accountability is only in the House, that’s too dangerous a prospect to persist,“ Schiff said.
