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By Mary Ellen McIntire
\nRoll Call<\/p>\n
Rep.\u00a0Adam B. Schiff<\/a>\u00a0was censured by the House Wednesday, but as he stood in the well to hear Speaker\u00a0Kevin McCarthy<\/a>\u00a0announce the finding, fellow Democrats jammed the aisles shouting \u201cshame\u201d and \u201cdisgrace\u201d at the GOP majority while cheering Schiff and patting him on the back.<\/p>\n The resolution of censure also said the California Democrat, a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump and a prosecutor at Trump\u2019s first impeachment trial, would be investigated by the Ethics Committee for \u201cfalsehoods, misrepresentations, and abuses of sensitive information.\u201d<\/p>\n Schiff is the 25th House member ever censured, and the first since 2010.<\/p>\n The vote came as some House Republicans were preparing to force votes on the impeachment of President Joe Biden and potentially other members of his administration. After the censure vote, the Rules Committee met and approved a rule to refer a Biden impeachment resolution to the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees. The full House would have to vote on that rule for the referral to take place.<\/p>\n The censure vote was 213-209, with six members voting present. Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna offered the resolution to censure the former House Intelligence Committee chairman, who Republicans say unfairly targeted Trump. The resolution argues that Schiff abused his power as the ranking member and chair of the panel and falsely spread allegations about Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign colluding with Russia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Democrats said that Schiff, who was removed from the Intelligence Committee earlier this year, was being targeted as Trump faces legal troubles as he makes a third bid for the White House.<\/p>\n The vote came a week after 20 Republicans voted with Democrats to table a similar measure that also would have fined Schiff $16 million. The updated resolution would not impose a fine on Schiff, which several Republicans raised concerns about.<\/p>\n Instead, it would censure him and refer him to the House Ethics Committee for an investigation. Democratic members of the House Ethics Committee, who last week voted present, voted with their party to table the resolution on Wednesday.<\/p>\n All 20 Republicans who last week voted with Democrats to table the measure voted against doing so on Wednesday.<\/p>\n On the floor before the vote, Luna said that the measure was meant to help restore the public\u2019s trust in Congress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAs Chair of the House Intelligence Committee,\u00a0Adam Schiff<\/a>\u00a0launched an all-out political campaign built on baseless distortions against a sitting U.S. president at the expense of every single citizen in this country and the honor of the House of Representatives,\u201d she said. \u201cWith access to sensitive information unavailable to most members of Congress and certainly not accessible to the American people, Schiff abused his privileges, claiming to know the truth while leaving Americans in the dark about this web of lies.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the vote, Luna told reporters she expected Republicans to reject the motion to table and said she was \u201cfairly confident\u201d the measure would be adopted.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not on Ethics but I think that they have a good start,” she said, citing the work of special counsel John Durham, who investigated the FBI’s handling of allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election to help Trump.<\/p>\n Rep.\u00a0Tom McClintock<\/a>, who opposed the version of the resolution that was considered last week, said he did so \u201cnot to defend Mr. Schiff\u2019s lies, but to defend the process that exposed those lies.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe must never punish speech in this House, only acts,\u201d he said. \u201cThis new version removes the fine and it focuses instead on specific acts, most particularly the abuse of his position as Intelligence chairman by implying he had access to classified information that did not exist and his placement into the Congressional Record of the Steele Dossier, that he knew or should have known was false.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n McClintock added that he hoped the House would \u201creturn to the principles of due process that the Democrats stripped from our precedents in the last session.\u201d<\/p>\n Schiff is running for California\u2019s open Senate seat and has been fundraising off his potential censure for the last week.<\/p>\n \u201cThese political smear tactics divert the resources of the House away from the pressing priorities that Congress should be addressing, and that I want to tackle as your Senator \u2014 homelessness, the high cost of housing and health care, gun violence, the restoration of reproductive rights and more,\u201d he wrote in a fundraising email on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n Speaking on the House floor prior to the vote, Schiff said that Republicans are focused on \u201cpetty political payback.\u201d He and other Democrats lamented the House was focused on the censure, rather than other issues.<\/p>\n \u201cYour words tell me that I have been effective in defense of our democracy, and I am grateful,\u201d Schiff said. \u201cAnd yet this false and defamatory resolution comes at a considerable cost to the country and to the Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Former Speaker\u00a0Nancy Pelosi<\/a>, who has endorsed Schiff for Senate, said in a floor speech during debate that Republicans \u201clook miserable\u201d and that they\u2019ve turned the House into a puppet show.<\/p>\n The censure effort comes as other House conservatives are setting their sights on the administration. Colorado Rep.\u00a0Lauren Boebert<\/a>\u00a0offered a privileged resolution on Tuesday to impeach Biden, a measure that could allow her to go around House GOP leaders to bring it to the floor. Adoption of the rule proposed Wednesday evening by the full House, however would send the measure to two committees.<\/p>\n Georgia Rep.\u00a0Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/a>\u00a0has also introduced impeachment resolutions that would target other members of the administration, and reportedly could soon move ahead with a privileged resolution to impeach FBI Director Christopher Wray. She has also introduced resolutions to impeach Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, and Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.<\/p>\n An ally of McCarthy, Greene\u00a0was quoted<\/a>\u00a0after supporting the package to raise the debt limit he negotiated with Biden last month that she expected House impeachment actions as \u201cdessert.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n