Chavez

State Politics Reporter

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was censured by the U.S. House on Wednesday for his role in the first impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. Schiff has announced he is running for the U.S. Senate in 2024.

In a sign of her importance to the GOP, she served briefly as President Pro Tempore for the House, the name for the member who steps in to run the House when the Speaker is off the floor.

An Oregon congresswoman was among 20 Republicans who voted with Democrats to block punishment of the lead prosecutor in the House's 2019 impeachment of then-President Donald Trump.

U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Happy Valley, said Friday that she voted on June 14 to table the resolution of censure against Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff of Southern California because it included a $16 million fine she believes was too large and likely unconstitutional.

"Excessively fining members of Congress without due process would set a dangerous precedent," Chavez-DeRemer said.

The 225-196 vote to table the resolution was a rare win for Democrats since Republicans took over the House following the 2022 election. The GOP holds a narrow 222-212 majority, which House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has used to turn the tables on Democrats who investigated and prosecuted Trump. He barred Schiff from a seat on a top national security panel.

“I supported Congressman Schiff’s removal from the House Intelligence Committee earlier this year because I believe he has acted irresponsibly," Chavez-DeRemer said.

Trump was livid with Republicans who had voted to table the censure, going on the Trump-owned Truth Social website to demand that those who have voted with the Democrats should face a primary challenge from his supporters among Republicans.

Almost immediately after her vote, conservative websites and social media posts slammed Chavez-DeRemer, using the Twitter hashtag #cowardly20 to promise political retribution in 2024 for votes portrayed as a litmus test of support for Trump.

The censure resolution was introduced by freshman U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who won election in 2022 as an unstinting Trump supporter.

Luna said the $16 million fine was equal to half the cost of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Trump. The House voted to impeach Trump, with Schiff as the lead prosecutor presenting the case to the U.S. Senate, which acted as the jury. Trump was acquitted on a largely party-line vote.

Several Republicans who voted with Democrats on the Schiff censure said their main issue was with the size and legality of the fine. Luna said she planned to return with a revised version of the censure.

Luna said soon after the vote that she would be back with a revised resolution

Chavez-DeRemer said she could switch to supporting censure.

"My colleagues and I are having discussions now to potentially consider a new resolution without that particular language, which I would support,” she said.

Schiff joked after the vote that he was flattered House Republicans were drawing so much attention to their attempts to "silence" him.

The 12-term congressman is running for the U.S. Senate seat held by retiring U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Schiff called the censure resolution "political payback" from Trump loyalists upset he investigated Trump's alleged attempts to withhold $400 million in aid from Ukraine until they dug up dirt on Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, who was the Democratic presidential frontrunner at the time.

"Today’s partisan and failed attempt to censure me is a badge of honor that I will wear proudly," Schiff tweeted after the vote. "MAGA Republicans are going after me because I dared to hold Donald Trump accountable."

Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 race for the White House. Trump faced a second impeachment trial for "incitement to insurrection" for instigating the Jan. 6, 2021 violent storming of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters attempting to stop Congress from certifying Biden's win in the Electoral College. The House again filed charges against Trump and a majority of the Senate supported his removal from office, but fell short of the two-thirds supermajority required to convict.

Trump was indicted last week in a Miami federal court on 37 counts of mishandling secret documents removed from the White House when he left the presidency in January 2021. He's also facing 34 felony charges in New York for allegedly paying $130,000 in "hush money" to a porn movie actress to stop revelations of their affair. He is the subject of two other criminal investigations — for election interference in Georgia and for the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C. federal court.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has announced he will seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

Schiff said last week that the censure attempt was a "political ploy" to recast Trump as a victim rather than a perpetrator of illegal activity.

Chavez-DeRemer, whose district runs from Portland to Bend, helped propel Republicans to a majority in the House for the first time in four years. She already raised $636,000 in the first four months of this year for a re-election race expected to attract a large field of Democrats looking to flip the seat back to their side of the aisle.

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U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was censured by the U.S. House on Wednesday for his role in the first impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. Schiff has announced he is running for the U.S. Senate in 2024.

State Politics Reporter

Lori Chavez-DeRemer never has answered to the allegations that she ran a smear campaign against her opponent.

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