Democrats showed their support for embattled House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) on Thursday by launching a hashtag, “#IStandWith Schiff,” as he stood by his allegations of Russian collusion.
For more than two years, Schiff claimed that he had seen evidence that President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign had colluded with the Russian government. But Special Counsel Robert Mueller could not establish that was true, according to a summary of his report presented to Congress on Sunday by Attorney General William Barr. But Schiff has refused to back off his previous claims.
Republicans on the committee unanimously demanded Schiff’s resignation in a joint letter Thursday: “Your willingness to continue to promote a demonstrably false narrative is alarming. … As such, we have no faith in your ability to discharge your duties in a manner consistent with your Constitutional responsibility and urge your immediate resignation as Chairman of this Committee.”
But Schiff was defiant, refusing to resign and listing a series of facts that, in his view, established that collusion had, in fact, occurred.
At a press briefing, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi defended Schiff, saying that Barr had erred by offering his interpretation of Mueller’s report (even though he had quoted Mueller directly) and demanding the full document be released. Later, on Twitter, she tweeted a video of her remarks, with the hashtag “#IStandWithSchiff.”
Other Democrats joined in, sending the hashtag to the list of Twitter “trending” topics in the United States:
Despite advice from House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) to let the collusion issue go, Democrats are clearly sticking with it.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.