Democratic strategist Jessica Tarlov and TownHall.com editor Katie Pavlich weighed in Thursday on Republican House Intelligence Committee members' call Democratic Chairman Adam Schiff’s resignation.
“Adam Schiff is not going to resign, we know that,” Pavlich said on “The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino,” adding that the members were simply putting their displeasure with Schiff on the record. “We need some accountability for the abuse of power when it came to receiving classified information, making these allegations publicly, then saying you can’t back it up because there is an ongoing investigation and now still saying there’s collusion,” the conservative commentator said.
“It’s a difficult day, I think, for Republicans to be making the case that Adam Schiff should be resigning ... when we hear from The New York Times that the Mueller report is over 300 pages and The Wall Street Journal says it’s less than 1,000," Tarlov countered. "That’s a really big range in there -- and it’s a lot more than four.
“I think it’s clear Mueller wanted to say he [Trump] is not exonerated. There is certainly something on obstruction of justice. We should be seeing the report.”
ADAM SCHIFF URGED TO STEP DOWN AS CHAIRMAN BY HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE REPUBLICANS
The Republican committee members demanded that Schiff step down as chairman over the California Democrat’s repeated claims to have evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. In a letter, obtained by Fox News and signed by every Republican on the committee, the lawmakers slammed Schiff for his claims in the media that there was “more than circumstantial evidence” of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
They repeated their demand in person during a heated hearing on Thursday morning.
The letter, which was sent to Schiff as he was confronted by those same Republicans, follows the conclusion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, which, according to the summary from Attorney General William Barr, turned up no evidence of Moscow-Trump collusion during the 2016 presidential election.
“Your actions both past and present are incompatible with your duty as chairman of this committee,” the letter stated. “We have no faith in your ability to discharge your duties in a manner consistent with your constitutional responsibility and urge your immediate resignation as chairman of this committee.”
MUELLER REPORT MORE THAN 300 PAGES LONG: DOJ
President Trump took to Twitter Thursday morning, writing, “Congressman Adam Schiff, who spent two years knowingly and unlawfully lying and leaking, should be forced to resign from Congress!”
Schiff, a vocal critic of the president, has doubled down on his claim that Trump and his administration colluded with Russia, and he defended himself during Thursday’s hearing.
Schiff pointed to evidence of Russian hacking during the last presidential election and noted that members of Trump’s campaign and family took meetings with Russians.
“You might think that’s OK that they lied about the meeting,” Schiff said. “I don’t think that’s OK.”
“I challenge Republicans to answer honestly about how things would work for them if it were reversed. If you had gotten a four-page summary of a special counsel investigation from Loretta Lynch or Eric Holder that said: ‘No big deal, Obama’s in the clear,’” said Tarlov.
Pavlich's retort? “The justice system in America, that’s not how it works. We protect the accused and just because it’s in a report and because it was investigated doesn’t mean that person is guilty. And people like Adam Schiff have been using those kinds of arguments for two years to smear a variety of people who worked on the Trump campaign with really saying there was evidence but not providing it.”
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Schiff signed a letter with his fellow House committee chairs on Monday demanding the full Mueller report by April 2.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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