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Arcadia Weekly Dec 19, 2019
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Local congressman, Adam Schiff, has been at center of House hearings
By Terry Miller
On the eve of the historic impeachment vote, American citizens voiced their opinions in no uncertain terms Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of citizens across the 50 states demonstrated that the impeachment articles are real and that many feel the only solution is Trump’s removal from office. In Sierra Madre approximately 500 people took to the sidewalks of Kersting Court; so many in fact hat the throngs were forced to go on each corner of Sierra Madre Boulevard and Baldwin Avenue.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D) is no stranger to Pasadena and Los Angeles County respectively. Serving the 28th congressional district, Schiff has served in Congress for nearly 20 years.
A familiar sight at many local events over the years, Schiff has set himself up as a proponent for truth in government and an opponent of those who misuse power.
Schiff’s district, numbered as the 27th from 2001 to 2003 and as the 29th from 2003 and 2013, has been centered in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles, including Pasadena, Glendale and his hometown of Burbank.
In the past couple of years, the mild-mannered Democrat has been thrust into the international limelight unlike few other congressmen in U.S. history.
Adam Schiff has been at the center of the House Intelligence Committee’s proceedings. – Photo by Terry Miller / Beacon Media News
Placing the impeachment of Donald Trump in his cross hairs has so enraged the president, beyond mere tweets — attacking the congressman with retribution and uncommon hostility.
Trump and his supporters have called Schiff every name in the book; some accounts amplify Trump’s own condemnation of Schiff and others go much farther into dangerous and murky waters, with some suggesting the high-ranking Democrat be tried for “treason” and some going in deeper, suggesting Schiff be executed.
“Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress,” Trump tweeted in late September, after Schiff explicitly paraphrased the non-verbatim transcript of the call during a committee meeting.
Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people. It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019
Trump devotees extended their love for 45; replete with seriously frightening comments on Twitter:
“Arrest for Treason?” one person tweeted in reply.
“Yes, and even worse than That [sic]!” another account replied. “This Lying Piece Of Garbage Should Be Tried Under The UCMJ, For Treason Against Our Wonderful Sitting President [sic].”
“He Should Immediately Be Given The Ol’ Fashioned DEATH PENALTY Carried Out Immediately By The Original Sentencing FIRING SQUAD [sic],” a tweet read alongside a GIF of Trump captioned: “THE PENALTY IS DEATH.”
Other accounts were more subtle, albeit defamatory. “If Adam Schiff was working with the ‘whistleblower’ team to leak to the media–he should be expelled from congress and charged with sedition,” one tweeted. “Conspiring against the President of the United States should be a career ending exercise for any ‘public servant…at minimum.”
One Tweet replied with a GIF of a swinging noose, “I’m thinking this instead,” BuzzFeed reported in October.
To be clear, with so many forms of instant communication, just about anyone can say anything about anybody without fear of retribution. Many of those anonymous or phony Twitter/Facebook accounts have permeated the digital air with distastefully dangerous diatribes. It’s your choice to believe or discredit and ultimately fact check.
Last Thursday, Schiff took some time to discuss the impeachment case and subsequent vote with a popular late-night comedian for whom Trump has been a frequent recipient of his writers’ jokes.
“For some of our members who are defending the Constitution, it is their finest hour,” Schiff said in a Thursday interview on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” “But for others who are willfully blinding themselves to this president’s misconduct, it is the most shameful hour.”
Last Thursday’s marathon debate and subsequent vote in the House of Representatives approving two articles of impeachment against President Trump Friday were indeed gripping.
As an aside to Schiff’s growing notoriety, a town hall recognizing strides toward getting the U.S. government to recognize the Armenian Genocide was upended this past weekend by protestors angry with Rep. Schiff for his role in House Democrats’ quest to impeach President Trump. At the Glendale Public Library on Saturday, Trump supporters wielded “DON’T IMPEACH” signs, heckling and booing Schiff as he began to talk about the years-long effort to get Congress to acknowledge the 1915 mass killings of more than 1.5 million Armenians as genocide.
One can only speculate the President’s tweet reaction if Rep. Schiff was selected by TIME as Person of the Year as some had speculated.
