California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff is lobbying to become the next attorney general of the Golden State. Schiff’s resume is less than stellar, and appointing him would be continuing the state’s trend of terrible attorneys general.
Schiff is lobbying California Gov. Gavin Newsom for the job as Xavier Becerra, the current attorney general, is poised to be confirmed as President Biden’s secretary of Health and Human Services. Schiff’s questionable relationship with the truth would make him a terrible pick to be California’s top law enforcement official.
Schiff contended for years that there was “direct evidence” that then-candidate Donald Trump had colluded with the Russians ahead of the 2016 election. Schiff would reiterate that point for every camera put in front of him, even after special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation failed to establish a conspiracy or direct coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
It turned out that the evidence Schiff insisted was “in plain sight” was not so visible to the Obama administration’s top national security officials. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence under President Barack Obama, told Schiff and the House Intelligence Committee in July 2017 that he “never saw any direct empirical evidence” of collusion. National security adviser Susan Rice and deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes each told the committee the same thing later that year.
So, Schiff, who was willing to lie about evidence of Russian collusion to the public for years while he was hearing testimony to the contrary behind closed doors, now wants to become the chief law enforcement official for the largest state in the union. Normally, this kind of stain on one’s resume would be disqualifying. But being attorney general in liberal California is far less about caring about evidence than it is about cultural battles.
Take Becerra, whom Schiff wants to replace. Becerra is a pro-abortion zealot who used his position as attorney general to try and force pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to advertise abortion. He pushed for felony prosecutions against pro-life activists for exposing Planned Parenthood’s role in selling the body parts of aborted babies. The investigation that led to those charges was launched by Becerra’s predecessor, none other than Vice President Kamala Harris.
Newsom’s obsession with prioritizing the race and gender of appointees more than anything else might just save Californians from a Schiff nomination. But his evidence-free, camera-chasing routine in partisan battles would be in keeping with the tradition of abysmal California attorneys general who prioritize politics over the rule of law.
