Rep. Adam Schiff says House Dems ‘may’ take up impeachment

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff said Sunday his party “may” take up impeaching President Trump even if they don’t have bipartisan support.

During an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” the California Democrat said special counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report on investigations of possible collusion and obstruction of justice contains “serious and damning” evidence against the president that would be “without question in the realm of impeachable offenses.”

Mr. Schiff blamed his Republicans, in particular House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for being too staunchly supportive of Mr. Trump and likely killing any attempt at impeachment.

“It may be that we undertake an impeachment nonetheless,” Mr. Schiff said. “Is that the best thing for the country, to take up an impeachment proceeding, because to do otherwise would sends a message that this conduct is somehow compatible with [public] office.”

Several outspoken Democrats, including freshman progressive Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib and presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have called for impeachment proceedings to begin.

Others, like presidential candidate Rep. Tim Ryan, said Democrats should hold off on using the “i word” until Congress has a chance to do its own investigation.

After nearly two years of investigating Mr. Trump and his campaign, Mr. Mueller did not find enough evidence of collusion between Trump associates and Russians, but he intentionally left the question of obstruction of justice open ended, in part to protect Congress’ ability to impeach.

Attorney General William Barr reached his own conclusion — that there was no evidence to prove Mr. Trump’s intent to obstruct justice, but House Democrats said he overstepped, mislead, and is ultimately just another lackey for the president.

Mr. Schiff didn’t go so far as to call for Mr. Barr to step down but said the attorney general shouldn’t have had as much access to the investigation.

“I think he should have never been confirmed,” Mr. Schiff said. “He absolutely never should have been considered unless he recused himself from an investigation in which he had such obvious bias.”