Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Arizona) voted Wednesday with 205 Democrats and 19 other House Republicans to table a resolution to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California), who led the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into whether Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with Russians to win the 2016 presidential election.
It did not take long for his controversial vote to garner the freshman Congressman some serious pushback from Arizona Republicans. And a vague statement his office issued Thursday did nothing to soothe those concerns.
One of those who called out Ciscomani was KFYI’s James T. Harris, who spoke during his Thursday show of his shock at the representative’s vote which helped Schiff avoid being censured this week.
Harris, who hosts The Conservative Circus, did not hold back on Friday either, asking whether the vote by Ciscomani and the other 19 Republicans was “a betrayal” and “unforgiveable.”
Minutes later, Ciscomani called into Harris’ show to address the “misinformation” floating around about his vote. He also avowed support for instructing the House Ethics Committee to investigate Schiff for “lies, misrepresentations, and abuses of sensitive information” related to the Schiff-led investigation of Trump.
“This is someone who needs to be held accountable for what he has done, and we will do that,” Ciscomani said.
But the censure resolution put forth for a vote Wednesday by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) included an unconstitutional provision which could be used to void the censure, he explained.
According to Ciscomani, the censure resolution up for vote allowed for a possible $16 million fine against Schiff. Such a fine has previously been found unconstitutional when former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) tried to levy fines against some Republican house members, he noted.
It was the fine provision and not the censure question itself which led Ciscomani to vote Wednesday to table the censure vote until the resolution can be revised, he told Harris.
“Had we left (the $16 million fine) in there on this bill then that jeopardizes the rest of the bill,” Ciscomani explained. “Then there’s a weak point in the bill that actually can be attacked and maybe the other parts of the bill are not able to be enforced.”
Like Ciscomani, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) has also publicly supported a censure of Schiff. But he too voted to table the censure vote due to the language involving a possible $16 million fine.
Massie (R-Kentucky) sued Pelosi over her decision to fine him for not wearing a mask in the U.S. House of Representative Chambers in 2021.
“The Constitution says the House may make its own rules but we can’t violate other (later) provisions of the Constitution,” Massie tweeted, adding that including language of a possible fine against Schiff violated the U.S. Constitution, just as Pelosi’s fine against him did.
Ciscomani also told Harris there are already plans to bring a revised censure resolution up for a vote next week. Luna also appears confident a censure vote is not too far away, tweeting “Censure Schiff Round 2 next week.”
My concerns with the bill have been addressed and I will be voting YES this coming week to censure Adam Schiff.
More from me on this vote. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/mhn4GKV7ie
— Congressman Juan Ciscomani (@RepCiscomani) June 17, 2023
Censure Schiff Round 2 next week. 🏆 @RepThomasMassie https://t.co/G1JH6B04pE
— Anna Paulina Luna (@realannapaulina) June 15, 2023