The latest GOP attack came Monday night, when Republicans tried to force the House to vote on a censure resolution condemning Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who they are seeking to make a villain in the impeachment fight.

In a party-line vote, Democrats voted to table the censure resolution, essentially derailing it. One Independent, Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, joined Democrats in rejecting the measure.

But even though the effort failed, it will undoubtedly please Trump as he sees House Republicans rallying around him, a stark contrast to last week when 129 GOP lawmakers voted to rebuke the president over his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria.



After the vote Monday night, Trump retweeted about 20 Republicans who criticized Schiff.

Censure (at least) Corrupt Adam Schiff! After what he got caught doing, any pol who does not so vote cannot be honest....are you listening Dems? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2019

House Republicans have seized on Schiff’s exaggerated rendition of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to make it sound like a mob boss shakedown, as well as a New York Times report that a whistleblower sought guidance from an Intelligence Committee aide. Republicans have used this contact to allege without evidence that Schiff, who is leading the House impeachment effort, helped coordinate the complaint.

Both episodes were cited in the censure resolution, which was drafted by House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and has over 180 Republican co-sponsors, including the upper rungs of GOP leadership.

In the resolution, Republicans said Schiff “misled the American people,” and made “a mockery of the impeachment process, one of this chamber’s most solemn constitutional duties.”

While largely a symbolic move, a censure resolution is the most severe form of punishment in the House short of expulsion. Members who are censured are required to stand in the well of the House while the resolution is read out loud, a form of public shaming.

“Each member of Congress must uphold a high standard of honesty and integrity. When it comes to matters of our national security, that responsibility is even greater. Chairman Schiff has fallen short in his duty," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in a statement.

After the vote, Schiff fired back at the GOP in a tweet: "When [Republicans] found they lacked the courage to confront the most dangerous and unethical president in American history, they consoled themselves by attacking those who did."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi put out a statement supporting Schiff, a close ally whom she tapped to lead the House’s impeachment inquiry.

“Chairman Schiff is a great American patriot," the California Democrat said in a statement. "Our country is extremely well-served by his serious, smart and strategic leadership to protect our elections, national security and democracy — which sadly stands in stark contrast to Republicans in the Congress who cover up the truth, look the other way when the president invites foreign governments to interfere in our elections and vote against legislation to secure the ballot from foreign attacks,”

In recent days, Republicans have been encouraged by senior members to barge into the closed-door depositions connected to the impeachment inquiry, knowing they will be turned away — and handed a new talking point that they hope can bolster their argument that the Democrats aren’t being transparent.

And House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) got into a heated argument on the House floor with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) last Friday, when he tried — and failed — to bring up a resolution that would have changed the House rules to allow all lawmakers access to impeachment proceedings and materials.

“You don't want us to find that out because you are holding all this in secret. Shouldn't we know what's really going on and what's behind this so-called whistleblower complaint that's been debunked?” Scalise said on the House floor last week.

While House Republicans are privately concerned as to whether Trump’s communications with Ukraine were appropriate, the GOP is in agreement on at least one thing: the Democrats’ impeachment process has been unfair. Members are fuming at the idea of having to vote on articles of impeachment without being fully privy to the underlying investigation. And while a handful of GOP members have expressed alarm with the president’s behavior, House Republicans are overwhelmingly still standing by Trump.

“When you sit there and go, ‘I can’t read the transcripts, I can’t sit in on the meetings’ ... well it’s like [Democrats] have got to do something credible at some point,” said Rep. Mark Amodei of Nevada, one of the Republicans who has expressed concern with Trump’s conduct but is frustrated by the impeachment process. “It’s not even process. It’s hey, build some credibility.”

As Democrats ramp up their Trump impeachment probe — which has revealed a steady drip of revelations in the Ukraine saga — relations between the two parties have hit an all-time low. A bipartisan meeting at the White House last week ended in a blow up when Speaker Nancy Pelosi said to Trump that “all roads with you lead to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.” Trump fired back by calling Pelosi a “third-rate politician,” leading the speaker to storm out and both sides to dig in even further.

Republicans have struggled to defend Trump on the substance of the allegations against him, but they feel like they are on firmer ground when it comes to attacking Democrats over process and procedure concerns.

Thus far, however, Republicans have failed to make much headway with their attacks on the impeachment inquiry, and public-opinion polls show growing support for removing Trump. Democrats have defended their decision to hold closed-door depositions with impeachment witnesses and declined to hold a vote formally authorizing the impeachment probe — something Trump and the GOP have been demanding, arguing it happened in both the Clinton and Nixon impeachments.

“We're going to continue to have what we believe are fair, proper, consistent with the rules, consistent with the Constitution of the United States, consistent with the laws of the United States of America, to find out whether this president has committed high crimes and misdemeanors,” Hoyer said on the floor. “And then when we conclude an answer to that question, every member of this House will have availability of all the information.”

Still, Republicans are pressing ahead. Republicans have been firing off a series of letters, starting with McCarthy earlier this month demanding that Pelosi halt the impeachment inquiry until she answer a string of questions about the process.

“Democrats expect elected representatives to potentially vote on articles of impeachment when most House members currently don’t even have access to the documents produced as part of this closed-door investigation," said Rep. Doug Collins (Ga.), top Republicans on the Judiciary Committee. "It’s ironic that the Democrats adopted House rules this January that specifically prohibit any chairman from doing exactly what it seems Adam Schiff is now doing: selectively leak information while shielding the work of his committee from being fact-checked by other House members.”

Every single Republican on the House Intelligence Committee signed on to a letter criticizing Schiff for withholding documents and other materials from the minority. GOP lawmakers also demanded in a letter that Democratic committee leaders release the guidelines governing their impeachment proceedings. And another letter spearheaded by Collins requested to review all the impeachment materials, citing House Rule XI, which says all committee records are the property of the House and every individual member.

Republicans are planning to make a series of floor speeches this week hammering Democrats over what they claim has been a “secretive” impeachment process, according to GOP aides, with members painting the impeachment effort as nothing more than an attempt to undermine the results of the 2016 election.

GOP lawmakers have been attempting to call attention to the process by trying to force their way into closed-door depositions or demanding access to the witness transcripts. Only members of the three committees investigating Trump are allowed to attend the depositions with impeachment witnesses or access the transcripts.

“I want to get to the truth just like everybody else,” Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) said outside the secure room where the House Intelligence Committee meets. “But this needs to happen out in the open, with full transparency, and right now that’s not happening.”