Posted on 02/15/2021 6:30:58 PM PST by ransomnote
The Democratic face of Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial watched the second trial unfold the same way much of America did — glued to the TV and confined to his home as the pandemic rages.
That’s not to say Rep. Adam Schiff wasn't involved in the past week’s trial, which ended Saturday in acquittal. Schiff had offered one-on-one advice to his party’s new crop of impeachment managers if they asked. And as a surrogate dispatched by the speaker’s office, the Californian frequently appeared on TV to provide commentary, like a former Super Bowl quarterback reflecting on this year’s big game.
“He was on the vanguard in so many ways during the most challenging and darkening periods of the Trump era,” said Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), who grew close to Schiff while both served as impeachment managers last year. Despite vaulting to national prominence over the last few years, Crow said, Schiff is “not somebody that tells people what they should do.”
Which makes Schiff’s current moment of calm amid chaos all the more unexpected. Schiff has clearly started to weigh what he should do next, turning his gaze away from the House to privately lobby for the attorney general spot about to open up in California. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an ally, has lent some muscle to Schiff’s campaign — personally calling Gov. Gavin Newsom to recommend Schiff.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi meets with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi meets with President Joe Biden. | Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images
But while Schiff is in the mix of candidates, he’s far from a lock for the job. After leading the charge against Trump as the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat and then serving as lead prosecutor for the former president’s first trial, Schiff now finds himself on the sidelines. And his flirtation with returning home to California again raises the inevitable question of whether younger, ambitious House Democrats have a concrete ceiling in a caucus long ruled by the same leadership.
Schiff declined to be interviewed for this story, but there’s hardly a mystery surrounding his play for the attorney general job. He has always telegraphed that he has higher aspirations beyond his current station in the House, as a close confidant to the speaker and chair of a powerful committee. The question no one in Washington can answer: What is Schiff’s endgame?
Yeh, they better lay low as I think something very bad is headed their way. 😆
He can go back to bakery work that helped him through school. In California there’s always a position for experienced fudge packers.
😆
HIV?
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