Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., disrupted a public House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday, making a motion to subpoena the interpreter who accompanied President Trump earlier this week for a private meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The problem was the hearing was focused on something else entirely — the Chinese threat to the U.S. government and private sector — and ultimately the Democrat’s effort was shot down.
[Opinion: Don’t bring the Putin-Trump translator in for testimony]
At the beginning of the hearing, after Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif. delivered his opening remarks, Schiff used his opportunity to do the same to broach the “extraordinary circumstance” in which Trump chose to forego inviting his national security advisers and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to his two-hour meeting with Putin in Helsinki. That, coupled with Trump’s public remarks during a joint press conference casting doubt on the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, is what Schiff explained led to him to act out of line with the hearing’s purpose.
“We move to subpoena the interpreter to come before our committee. I regret that we have to raise this at today’s hearing. We have requested a business hearing next week, but that request has been declined. This may be our last opportunity before we go into an extended recess to vote to subpoena the interpreter,” Schiff said.
Nunes noted that Schiff can only make a motion during a hearing to adjourn, to which Schiff defiantly replied, “Mr. chairman, my motion is that we subpoena the interpreter,” adding that he realized that he was resorting to an “extraordinary remedy,” but argued it was one that was necessary because of Trump’s private meeting with an “adversary” and the president’s public comments that disavowed the U.S. intelligence community and “in many respects disavow his own country.”
Today, Republicans on the House Intel Committee voted against our motion to subpoena the U.S. interpreter from the Trump-Putin summit to testify. The American people need to know what secret deals Trump made with Putin during his one-on-one meeting.
Watch here: pic.twitter.com/v3DMWC4KXk
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) July 19, 2018
Nunes shot back, saying he could not “entertain any such request.”
Schiff attempted to appeal the ruling of the chair and ask for yeas and nays. However Nunes declared, “the chair has not made a ruling, but a denial of recognition. I’ll give you three minutes for opening statements.”
Schiff then sought to appeal the denial of recognition.
After giving Schiff one last opportunity to deliver his opening statement — after which Schiff asked if Nunes was denying a vote on the ruling of the chair — Nunes called the session into recess.
After about a 16-minute recess, Nunes again recognized Schiff for the purpose of making his motion.
Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, moved to table the motion. After a voice vote, Schiff called for yeas and nays. Defeated in the vote — the count was 11 ayes and six nos — Schiff then delivered his opening statement on China.
However, he also tweeted his dismay with the result of the vote.
BREAKING: @RepSwalwell and I just made a motion in House Intel Committee to subpoena the American interpreter during the summit — the only witness to Trump’s meeting with Putin. This is an extraordinary remedy, but Trump’s actions necessitate it.
Republicans voted it down.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) July 19, 2018
