The first time Republicans in the House of Representatives tried to censure California Democrat Adam Schiff, a man high on the unofficial Donald Trump enemies list, the measure failed to win enough votes and Schiff was spared.
The very next week, however, Schiff was censured by his House colleagues in a party line vote (213-209) that saw Democrats gather to chant “shame, shame, shame” in the House chamber as a result.
Schiff, meanwhile, was using the censure — both times it was attempted — as a trigger to request for donations to fight the MAGA forces that targeted him, claiming that being defined as one of Trump’s enemies is a distinction of which he is most proud.
“You honor me with your enmity,” Schiff told his GOP colleagues.
The fundraising lever worked, as a recent Fox News headline attests, reporting that Schiff used the censure to raise more than $8 million as he runs for the Senate in 2024, hoping to occupy the seat being vacated by the venerable Dianne Feinstein.
I’m sure the Schiff campaign is very grateful to brilliant Anna Paulina Luna for “punishing” him by helping raise a huge war chest for his Senate campaign. pic.twitter.com/PfgiBeDRZn
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 5, 2023
Commentator Ron Filipkowski mentions that U.S. Representative from Florida Anna Paulina Luna, who “led the charge” — as Fox News puts it — to censure Schiff, helped the Senate candidate “raise a huge war chest.”
Schiff reached out to constituents and potential donors with messages that portrayed him as a beacon of integrity being railroaded for “doing his constitutional duty.” Numerous emails contained quotes like the one below.
“The question, my Republican colleagues, is not why am I the subject of this false resolution for doing my constitutional duty, but why are you not? Why are you not standing beside me, the subject of a similar rebuke for speaking the truth? Why did you not stand up to Donald Trump, why did you not reject his immorality, why did you not condemn his dishonesty, why did you not speak out when his horde attacked our Capitol, or now, when he treats the nation’s secrets with such carelessness, lawlessness, and disdain, why did you hide from efforts to hold him accountable, why were you silent, afraid, unwilling to do your ethical, constitutional duty, why did you cower — why do you still?”
— Adam Schiff
The censure amounts to a public reprimand with few real world impediments affecting Schiff’s ability to function as a legislator. As it did not hamstring Schiff, but instead only drove contributions to his coffers, many political observers (like Filipkowski) are calling the censure a strategic miscalculation on the part of Rep. Luna.
They point to Schiff’s prodigious fundraising as proof that the censure enabled, rather than hobbled, the would-be Senator.
(Note: it also depends on how success is measured; the censure procedure did raise Congresswoman Luna’s national profile.)
The GOP is highly familiar with how this scenario played out, because the front runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, Donald Trump, has been expert in using condemnation and reprimand — from impeachments to federal criminal charges — to spur major fundraising efforts on his behalf and drive contributions to his campaign. If the Schiff failure backfired on MAGA, it backfired in a very Trump-like way — giving him more buying power while intending to curtail his influence.
