Adam Schiff

Adam Bennett Schiff (born June 22, 1960) is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as a U.S. representative for California's 30th congressional district since 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, Schiff was a member of the California State Senate from 1996 to 2000. He is a candidate for the United States Senate in the 2024 election to succeed Dianne Feinstein. Schiff chaired the House Intelligence Committee from 2019 to 2023 and was removed from it by Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023.

Quotes

 * If they [the Department of Justice] are investigating Hillary Clinton, it doesn’t take a genius, let alone a stable genius, to see why. It’s not because there is some new evidence that has come to light. It’s because they’re being badgered by the White House to do it. I think that these cracks that we’re seeing in the independence of the Justice Department ought to concern every American.
 * , 7 January 2018.


 * My colleagues may think it is OK that the Russians offered dirt on a Democratic candidate for president as part of what was described as the Russian government's attempt to help the Trump campaign. You might think that's OK. My colleagues might think it's OK that when it was offered to the son of the president, who had a pivotal role in the campaign, that the president's son did not call the FBI, he did not adamantly refuse that foreign help. No, instead that son said that he would love the help of the Russian....You might think that it’s O.K. that the president’s son-in-law sought to establish a secret back channel of communications with the Russians through a Russian diplomatic facility. I don’t think that’s O.K. You might think it’s O.K. that an associate of the president made direct contact with the G.R.U. through Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks; that is considered a hostile intelligence agency. You might think that it’s O.K. that the national security-designate secretly conferred with the Russian ambassador about undermining U.S. sanctions. And you might think it’s O.K. he lied about it to the F.B.I. You might say that’s all O.K. You might say that’s just what you need to do to win. But I don’t think it’s O.K. I think it’s immoral. I think it’s unethical. I think it’s unpatriotic. And yes, I think it’s corrupt. And evidence of collusion.
 * March 28, 2019


 * If the truth doesn’t matter, we’re lost. Framers couldn’t protect us from ourselves, if right and truth don’t matter. And you know that what he did was not right. You know, that’s what they do in the old country, that Colonel Vindman’s father came from. Or the old country that my great grandfather came from, or the old countries that your ancestors came from, or maybe you came from. But here, right is supposed to matter. It’s what’s made us the greatest nation on earth. No constitution can protect us if right doesn’t matter anymore.   And you know you can’t trust this president to do what’s right for this country. You can trust he will do what’s right for Donald Trump.   He’ll do it now. He’s done it before. He’ll do it for the next several months.  He’ll do it in the election if he’s allowed to.  This is why, if you find him guilty, you must find that he should be removed. Because right matters. Because right matters, and the truth matters. Otherwise, we are lost.
 * During the Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump


 * You cannot trust this President to do what's right for the country
 * "Rep. Adam Schiff: ‘You Can’t Trust This President to do What’s Right for This Country’" Facebook video (January 2020?)


 * There is nothing more corrosive to a democracy than the idea that there is no truth.


 * Unlike those people climbing outside the building, they knew it was a lie. The true believers were out there attacking the building. But inside the chamber, my Republican colleagues know it is a big lie
 * "Schiff calls House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy an 'insurrectionist in a suit and tie'" (October 12, 2021)

Open Letter to the Committee Hearing Re: FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers
Rep. Adam Schiff's Opening Statement on Russian Meddling in the Election", 20 March 2017.


 * That foreign adversary was, of course, Russia, and it acted through its intelligence agencies and upon the direct instructions of its autocratic ruler, Vladimir Putin, in order to help Donald J. Trump become the 45th President of the United States.


 * What does matter is this: the Russians successfully meddled in our democracy, and our intelligence agencies have concluded that they will do so again.


 * What is striking here is the degree to which the Russians were willing to undertake such an audacious and risky action against the most powerful nation on earth. That ought to be a warning to us, that if we thought that the Russians would not dare to so blatantly interfere in our affairs, we were wrong. And if we do not do our very best to understand how the Russians accomplished this unprecedented attack on our democracy and what we need to do to protect ourselves in the future, we will have only ourselves to blame.


 * If the Trump campaign, or anybody associated with it, aided or abetted the Russians, it would not only be a serious crime, it would also represent one of the most shocking betrayals of our democracy in history.


 * The stakes are nothing less than the future of liberal democracy. We are engaged in a new war of ideas, not communism versus capitalism, but authoritarianism versus democracy and representative government.