Conservatives loathe Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), but he has a chummy relationship with at least one Republican.
The Democrat poster boy for former President Donald Trump’s failed impeachment trials thought of one person when asked for his favorite House Republican in a recently unearthed video.
“I have always thought the world of Tom Cole,” Schiff said in 2018 during the twenty-ninth annual BakerHostelter legislative seminar, calling him “both strong on policy and strong on politics.”
Schiff continued, “I think if there were a lot more in Congress like him, we’d be far more productive, could get things done. It’d be a far less partisan place, so he would be, certainly, on my list.”
Schiff’s feelings for Cole appear mutual, as the latter said as far back as 2013 in a CNBC appearance with Schiff, “We do work together well. I admire Adam. He’s a great member of the House.”
Schiff’s endorsement of Cole’s brand of politics is unlikely to sit well with most Republican voters.
The House censured Schiff in June 2023 for abusing his perch atop the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to mislead the public about alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 campaign. The resolution against Schiff stated that while he was serving as the top Democrat on the committee, he “spread false accusations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.”
RELATED — Schiff: GOP Censure of Me Was a “Flagrant Abuse of the House Process”
“…Schiff launched an all-out political campaign built on baseless distortions against a sitting U.S. president at the expense of every single citizen in this country…,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who introduced the resolution, said on the House floor during the debate.
But that successful censure came after Cole and 19 other Republicans joined with Democrats to kill a prior effort to censure Cole’s friend. Luna was forced to water down that censure resolution — removing language that would have fined Schiff to recover some of the tens of millions of dollars that taxpayers wasted to investigate the unproven accusations — to get the support of Cole and his recalcitrant band of colleagues.
Schiff was the main pusher of the Russia collusion hoax in Congress and had repeatedly insisted there was “circumstantial evidence” of collusion, serving as impeachment manager for one of Trump’s impeachments and leveraging that liberal badge of honor to run for a U.S. Senate seat from California.
A senior NPR business editor admitted in April that the network’s reporting on the alleged Russian collusion was a bust, even admitting that Schiff became the news outlet’s “guiding hand” in its reporting on Russian collusion and expressed regret in hitching its wagon to him.
Cole’s chumminess with one of Trump’s greatest Congressional antagonists is becoming a lightning rod as he fights to keep his seat.
“Tom Cole is a career politician,” according to provided quotes from Paul Bondar, a successful businessman and primary challenger looking to deny the 22-year incumbent a twelfth term. “His mutual admiration society with congenital liar Adam Schiff, who did major damage to this country and to our president Donald Trump with his lies, is [what] the Republican voters in the fourth district need to know about.”
Bondar referenced a slew of false attacks from Cole, including those questioning Bondar’s residency and taxes. Despite Cole’s claims, Bondar purchased 500 acres through his LLC as far back as 2022, on which he is building a new home while renting a house in Stonewall, Oklahoma.
“These vicious personal attacks by Cole based on lies are not surprising,” said Bondar. “This swamp creature who hasn’t voted in person in Oklahoma since 2003, casting an absentee ballot for over 20 years, doesn’t want people examining his record when it comes to spending billions, causing the inflation every Oklahoman is struggling with.”
Cole, who recently took over the House Appropriations Committee after Rep. Kay Granger’s (R-TX) resignation in March, wants to “unlock the possibility of more earmarks,” Politico reports.
House Republicans banned the practice of earmarking in 2011 after the Republican Tea Party takeover. The practice had long become associated with wasteful pork barrel spending, exemplified by Alaska’s “bridge to nowhere,” but the practice returned in 2021.
Bondar also hit Cole for his support of Ukraine funding, an increasingly unpopular issue for conservatives.
“Cole doesn’t want people to know that he recently voted for $62 billion more for the war in Ukraine on top of the $100 billion he’s already voted for,” said Bondar.
Cole has been a consistent supporter of aid to Ukraine, releasing a statement after the April vote that “at a time of such turmoil in the world, America can’t cower to evil.”
The Republican primary in Oklahoma is June 18.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
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