Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Friday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that Republican Senators who did not vote to convict then-President Donald Trump during his two impeachments displayed an “abundant failure of moral courage.”
The conversation was about an article in The Atlantic with excerpts from Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) upcoming biography “Romney: A Reckoning.” /em>
Anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “Here’s a quote from McConnell, ‘They nailed him,’ the Senate majority leader said, that was with the impeachment case against Trump. McConnell, ‘They nailed him,’ and McConnell says he doesn’t recall the conversation, but you have Romney remembering that the leader of the Senate, the Republican leader, said, you nailed him. Ian Bassin, who runs a democracy-focused effort, says a state can’t survive if this is how their leaders function: that they see the facts, they acknowledge the facts, but they won’t act on the facts. You’ve written a book about democracy. Can we survive?”
Schiff said, “We can survive. We will survive. I think it’s really important for your viewers to understand that you know, we’ll get through this.”
He continued, “We’re about to be tested. The country’s going to go through a great trial, and I don’t mean any specific trial of the former presidents, but rather a test of the proposition that no one is above the law.”
Schiff added, “I think we pass that trial. I think we get through that trial. I also think in the coming election, we have a chance to begin to turn the corner as a country. But it is very discouraging to, you know, one level, read these recollections of what people were doing and saying at the time because, you see, such an abundant failure of moral courage. I remember during the first trial, I quoted Robert Kennedy, who said that, ‘Moral courage was a more rare commodity than courage on the battlefield.’ I questioned during that first trial could that really be true. But these recollections by Mitt Romney show, well, it’s pretty damn rare, moral courage.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
