Protesters opposed to the impeachment of President Trump interrupted Rep. Adam Schiff while he was honoring the victims of the Armenian genocide during a town hall, which led to scuffles among attendees.
Shouts of “liar!” were directed at the California Democrat, who is chairman the House Intelligence Committee, during the Saturday night event. Protesters donning shirts supporting Trump held up signs that said, “Don’t impeach,” and began shouting at the congressman as he spoke at the Glendale Library in Glendale, California.
Many in the crowd shouted at the president’s supporters to leave as they continued their disruption. When some attendees asked them to stop yelling, scuffles broke out throughout the room. After about 15 minutes, the chaos settled down. Three police officers helped deal with the incident and said no injuries were reported.
Before ending their protest, Trump supporters also shouted to Schiff, “You will be in jail!”
Anti-impeachment protestors are interrupting @AdamSchiff’s event on the House’s Armenian Genocide Recognition resolution. pic.twitter.com/blHMTuNkCX
— Sam Metz (@metzsam) December 15, 2019
Schiff has led many of the impeachment hearings against Trump. He faced criticism in October for paraphrasing the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that sparked the impeachment process, but he later claimed his summary of the call was “at least part in parody.” Republicans have also accused him of abusing his power by issuing subpoenas demanding access to colleagues’ phone records in the process.
The event on Saturday was meant as a “thank you” from the Armenian government for the passage of a resolution recognizing the genocide that took place over 100 years ago and claimed the lives of more than 1 million people. The resolution, co-sponsored by Schiff, confirms the United States’s acknowledgment that the mass deaths were part of a genocide, something NATO ally Turkey has notably rejected.
