The House voted to censure California Democrat Adam Schiff. Will it help his Senate campaign?

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to censure Rep. Adam Schiff for his role in investigations of former President Donald Trump, a reprimand that the California Democrat says he will wear as a “badge of honor.”

While censure is second-only to expulsion as the most serious discipline a member of Congress can face, it is likely only to boost Schiff’s U.S. Senate campaign in the deep blue state.

The vote fell basically on party lines, 213 to 209 with six members voting “present.” Democrats yelled “shame” and “disgrace.” Only two other House members have been censured in the last 40 years.

The resolution, introduced twice now by Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, publicly condemns Schiff, D-Burbank, and refers the matter to the House Ethics Committee. It involves various claims he made as a former member of the House Intelligence Committee and leader of the first impeachment inquiry into Trump, including the allegation that the former president colluded with Russia to win to 2016 election.

Luna’s resolution claims that Schiff misled Americans, citing a recent special counsel’s report that denounced the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe into alleged 2016 collusion, which is secret or illegal cooperation. The Florida Republican said the censure was about “restoring honor,” that would “bring accountability and trust back to this very sacred institution.”

Schiff, first elected to the House in 2000, told Fox News early on Wednesday that he would wear this like a “badge of honor.”

House Republicans “go after people that they think are effective,” he said. “I exposed the corruption of the former president.”

Adam Schiff versus Donald Trump

Schiff served on the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee, charged with overseeing intelligence agency actions, that started looking into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election. After becoming chairman in 2019, he continued to press on Trump and his campaign’s ties to Russian and Ukrainian officials.

Schiff made frequent television appearances regarding Trump, and rose to national prominence in leading the first impeachment inquiry over Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.

Specifically, the censure resolution cites Schiff for discussing allegations about Trump and his campaign’s ties to Russia ahead of the 2016 presidential election and a phone call between the former president and the Ukrainian president.

It also cites a recent report by Special Counsel John Durham, who concluded that the FBI should not have launched a full investigation into connections between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.

On Wednesday, Durham defended his report before the House Judiciary Committee — and Schiff.

After, Schiff defended the evidence of collusion he presented, writing on social media that some people “are working overtime to excuse the facts and evidence of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. All to protect Trump.”

Adam Schiff’s leg up in the Senate race

The Burbank Democrat is battling two House colleagues in next year’s primary to succeed retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein: Reps. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, and Barbara Lee, D-Oakland.

Schiff, who is marginally ahead in recent polls, will likely use the censure to appeal to California Democrats’ disdain for the former president and House Republicans like Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield.

“He is using this to carve out a spot as someone the Republican House wants to stop,” said Christian Grose, academic director of the University of Southern California’s Schwarzenegger Institute.

“This gives Schiff a chance to break out of the pack from Porter and Lee by saying that he should get elected to the U.S. Senate because he must be the choice of Democrats if the Republican-led House wants to censure him.”

While Trump is the favorite among California Republicans to be the GOP nominee for president in 2024, his overall approval rating in the state is low.

Almost half of California voters are Democrats, according to the California Secretary of State. Fewer than a quarter are Republicans with third-party and no-party preference voters making up the remainder.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, said Wednesday said that California was a poor model for the nation and that if the state sends Schiff to the Senate, “they will be sending a proven liar.”

“That’s what he’s aiming to do, raise money off of being a liar and running for Senate,” she said.

Republicans talk ‘accountability and trust’

House members voted on the measure to censure Schiff for the first time last week. Twenty Republicans joined Democrats in voting to table the matter, primarily over concerns about the constitutionality of fining Schiff $16 million — half the cost of the federal investigation into alleged collusion in the 2016 election.

As part of Luna’s original resolution, Schiff would be fined if the Ethics Committee found that Schiff “lied, made misrepresentations, and abused sensitive information.” The 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlaws excessive fines or “cruel and unusual punishments.”

Removing the fine got her more GOP support, including from five California Republicans who originally voted against it.

Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Big Bear Lake, posted on social media that the “revised resolution is in keeping with both our duty to enforce accountability in Congress and our pledge to defend the Constitution.”

California Republican Reps. David Valadao, Young Kim, Kevin Kiley and Tom McClintock also switched to support the censure. And Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, voted to condemn after casting a vote that was neither for or against last week.

“Congressman Schiff was removed from the House Intelligence Committee for abusing his position of trust and access to sensitive information,” Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, said. “Today’s censure resolution is constitutionally sound and narrowly tailored to protect the institution of the House and its capacity to serve the American people.”

“I opposed the original version of this resolution — not to defend Mr. Schiff’s lies, but to defend the process that exposed those lies,” McClintock, R-Elk Grove, said. “We must never punish speech in this House, only acts.”

“This new version removes the fine and it focuses instead on specific acts, most particularly the abuse of his position as Intelligence chairman,” he said.

But the effort could wound Republicans, said Grose of USC.

“It is not clear to me what advantage Republicans in the House are gaining by focusing on this censure vote instead of more substantive policy,” Grose said. “I think the House Republicans would be better off focused on policy and not these matters.”