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The Quiet Anger of Adam Schiff
“I GOT A PICTURE! I GOT A PICTURE!” A middle-aged woman named Barb plops down into a chair, out of breath. She’s wearing jeans, Crocs with painted toenails, and a T-shirt that says TRUMPCARE: IT’S TRUMP UNIVERSITY BUT YOU DIE. On an evening in late spring, she has staked out a front-row seat at a fundraiser for the Iowa Democratic Party held at a hotel on the wind-swept outskirts of Cedar Rapids. Barb’s friends crowd around her as she swipes through photos of her and the evening’s headliner, Congressman Adam Schiff.
The event was scheduled to begin 15 minutes ago, but Schiff is pinned in a far corner of the room, mobbed by party activists and local politicians who want to shake his hand or take another selfie. Schiff is here to raise money for Democratic candidates in Iowa in the run-up to the November midterms. He headlined a fundraiser in Des Moines earlier in the afternoon, and he was in St. Louis the day before on behalf of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s main vehicle for winning back the House. Wherever Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and his Democratic colleagues need him, he’ll go, and lately, that’s meant just about everywhere.
<snip>
The day before Schiff landed in Iowa, The New York Times had published a list of 49 questions drawn up by Trump’s legal team that reflected what special counsel Robert Mueller hoped to ask Trump if the president sat for an interview. Before the audience in Cedar Rapids, Schiff riffed on this latest bit of news, and then, in what’s become a trademark move, he urged his audience to step back from the fast-twitch news cycle and to remember the larger implications of the Russia story. “Even among Democrats, there is a tendency to think too narrowly about what this all means,” he said, “that this was just about helping Donald Trump in the last election or just about hurting Hillary Clinton.” But that line of thinking, he continued, misses the bigger picture. “This is part of Russian interference in nations throughout the world to undermine the very idea of democracy, and if we don’t understand that, then the remedy is going to be the wrong one.”
<snip>
Schiff pushed for the Gang of Eight to issue a bipartisan statement and urged the Obama administration to warn the public. The Republicans, though, refused to join in, and the White House, fearful that anything it said would be perceived as partisan, chose to remain silent. Schiff and California Senator Dianne Feinstein, a colleague on the Gang of Eight, decided to go it alone. On September 22, 2016, they released a joint statement, the first by any government official on Russia’s cyberattacks. Schiff’s and Feinstein’s staffs vetted each of its 129 words so as not to reveal classified information. “Based on briefings we have received, we have concluded that the Russian intelligence agencies are making a serious and concerted effort to influence the U.S. election,” they wrote. “We believe that orders for the Russian intelligence agencies to conduct such actions could come only from very senior levels of the Russian government.”
(more...)
https://story.californiasunday.com/adam-schiff
The event was scheduled to begin 15 minutes ago, but Schiff is pinned in a far corner of the room, mobbed by party activists and local politicians who want to shake his hand or take another selfie. Schiff is here to raise money for Democratic candidates in Iowa in the run-up to the November midterms. He headlined a fundraiser in Des Moines earlier in the afternoon, and he was in St. Louis the day before on behalf of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s main vehicle for winning back the House. Wherever Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and his Democratic colleagues need him, he’ll go, and lately, that’s meant just about everywhere.
<snip>
The day before Schiff landed in Iowa, The New York Times had published a list of 49 questions drawn up by Trump’s legal team that reflected what special counsel Robert Mueller hoped to ask Trump if the president sat for an interview. Before the audience in Cedar Rapids, Schiff riffed on this latest bit of news, and then, in what’s become a trademark move, he urged his audience to step back from the fast-twitch news cycle and to remember the larger implications of the Russia story. “Even among Democrats, there is a tendency to think too narrowly about what this all means,” he said, “that this was just about helping Donald Trump in the last election or just about hurting Hillary Clinton.” But that line of thinking, he continued, misses the bigger picture. “This is part of Russian interference in nations throughout the world to undermine the very idea of democracy, and if we don’t understand that, then the remedy is going to be the wrong one.”
<snip>
Schiff pushed for the Gang of Eight to issue a bipartisan statement and urged the Obama administration to warn the public. The Republicans, though, refused to join in, and the White House, fearful that anything it said would be perceived as partisan, chose to remain silent. Schiff and California Senator Dianne Feinstein, a colleague on the Gang of Eight, decided to go it alone. On September 22, 2016, they released a joint statement, the first by any government official on Russia’s cyberattacks. Schiff’s and Feinstein’s staffs vetted each of its 129 words so as not to reveal classified information. “Based on briefings we have received, we have concluded that the Russian intelligence agencies are making a serious and concerted effort to influence the U.S. election,” they wrote. “We believe that orders for the Russian intelligence agencies to conduct such actions could come only from very senior levels of the Russian government.”
(more...)
https://story.californiasunday.com/adam-schiff
This is a fascinating profile of Schiff (long read, but worthwhile if you can find the time). It also provides excellent context of the run-up to the 2016 election and the Russian attack on our democracy.
17 replies
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To me, he is what they call in baseball a "5-tool" player. He can do it all!
I can barely wait to toast this man when he becomes Chairman of the House Intel Committee. An added bonus would be to see Adam's boot firmly planted in Devin Nune's ass as he's thrown out the door.
I've got a really serious crush on Adam Schiff...
K&R
Adam is my Congress Critter! He always comes home to our Veteran's and Memorial Day ceremonies!
is a true patriot.
I have to say I was surprised to learn that when he gathered his staff to address them after the election, the first thing he said to them was, "We are so fucked".
I never pictured Schiff dropping the "F bomb" from his always controlled mouth and demeanor. Now I love him even MORE!
