Rep. Adam Schiff has a better plan than impeaching President Trump: “Vote his ass out of office.”
The California Democrat told Bill Maher on Friday he is “not there yet” on impeaching Trump, but he does think that voting the president out of office would be effective.
Schiff, the embattled chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, hedged his bet, though, saying he “may get me there” on impeachment eventually.
"But here’s the awful dilemma that we face: If we don’t impeach him, that sends a message that this kind of conduct, this obstruction of justice, this kind of willing use of the help of a foreign adversary, all the lies and cover up, that this is non-impeachable,” he said.
“At the same time, if we do impeach him and he is acquitted as he would likely be acquitted, then the message is ‘those are not impeachable offenses.’ At the end of the day, Bill, there is only one way to deal with this problem, whether we impeach him or not, and that is to vote his ass out of office,” he said.
Schiff has drawn a string of insulting nicknames from Trump, who has referred to him as "pencil-neck Schiff," "schifty Schiff" and "little Adam Schitt" over Schiff's assertions there is evidence Trump colluded with Russia, despite Attorney General William Barr's conclusion to the contrary.
Schiff’s comments come as Democrats debate whether or not to impeach the president following the release of the Mueller report.
The report concluded Trump did not conspire with the Russians to steal the 2016 election, but also laid out 10 different possible ways Trump may have attempted to obstruct justice.
Several Democrats in the progressive wing of the party, including Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ilhan Omar, have called for the impeachment of Trump while Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has attempted to avoid impeachment talks in favor of continued investigations into Trump and his businesses.