Twenty House Republicans joined Democrats in a defense of Adam Schiff (D-CA) and effectively killed the measure to censure him, despite party leadership backing the resolution.
According to several Republicans, party leadership supported the resolution to censure Schiff but did not whip votes for it.
The measure called for censuring and condemning Schiff “for conduct that misleads the American people in a way that is not befitting an elected Member of the House of Representatives.”
It also directed the Ethics Committee to investigate Schiff’s “lies, misrepresentations, and abuses of sensitive information” in regard to his statements about collusion between Russia and former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Those included Schiff’s promotion of the controversial Steele dossier, which was later found to be baseless despite being used as justification for investigating Trump.
The resolution also called for fining Schiff $16 million dollars if the Ethics Committee investigation found wrongdoing, representing half the cost of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump.
Breaking Down the Vote
Democrats introduced the motion to table the resolution and all voted in favor, other than a few that voted present.
The twenty Republicans who voted with Democrats are: Kelly Armstrong (ND), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (OR), Juan Ciscomani (AZ), Tom Cole (OK), Warren Davidson (OH), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Kay Granger (TX), Garret Graves (LA), Thomas Kean Jr. (NJ), Kevin Kiley (CA), Young Kim (CA), Mike Lawler (NY), Thomas Massie (KY), Tom McClintock (CA), Mark Molinaro (NY), Jay Obernolte (CA), Mike Simpson (ID), Mike Turner (OH), David Valadao (CA) and Steve Womack (AK).
Representatives George Santos (NY) and Darrell Issa (CA) voted present. Santos had posted a video on Twitter just hours before the vote arguing Schiff needed to be investigated. It is not clear why he voted present.
After the vote, Schiff said he was “frankly surprised” and praised the Republicans who voted to defend him for standing up to “the crazy MAGA folks”.
