In wake of the blockbuster news that Robert Mueller’s two-year collusion investigation turned up no proof that Donald Trump illegally coordinated or improperly communicated with the Russian government during the 2016 election, a pair of Republican Tennessee congressional lawmakers took the opportunity to take a swipe at one of Congress’s most visible and vocal proselytizers of the conspiracy theory.
Freshmen Reps. Mark Green of Clarksville and Tim Burchett of Knoxville collaborated this week on a video lampoon jeering California Rep. Adam Schiff, an unremitting and unapologetic Trump-Russia collusion-monger.
D.C.-based political website TheHill.com picked up the social media send up:
In a video posted by Rep. Mark Green, the congressman and fellow Tennessee GOP Rep. Tim Burchett pretended to unveil an exclusive copy of the “Schiff report,” or the evidence that Schiff has asserted exists to prove collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election. “I got the Schiff report!” Burchett, dressed in a brown overcoat, tells a grinning Green in the video before handing over a manilla envelope marked as such.
“Holy cow, he’s got the Schiff report,” Green exclaims in response. “There’s gotta be proof of collusion, evidence in here, right?”
The two then open the envelope, revealing it to be empty.
BREAKING: @RepTimBurchett and I found the elusive Schiff Report that allegedly proves the president colluded with Russia! pic.twitter.com/cAvNniVWcV
— Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) March 28, 2019
House Republicans have been calling this week for Schiff to step down from his post as chairman of the chamber’s intelligence committee.
“The findings of the special counsel conclusively refute your past and present assertions and have exposed you as having abused your position to knowingly promote false information, having damaged the integrity of this Committee, and undermined faith in U.S. government institutions,” the nine Republican members of Schiff’s committee wrote to him in a letter delivered March 24.
They concluded, “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.”
Schiff maintains he’s done nothing discreditable, and that when Mueller’s full report is made public it will substantiate accusations of wrongdoing against Trump and his family.
I say this to the President, and his defenders in Congress:
You may think it’s okay how Trump and his associates interacted with Russians during the campaign.
I don’t.
I think it’s immoral. I think it’s unethical. I think it’s unpatriotic. And yes, I think it’s corrupt. pic.twitter.com/nTdgRVfssQ
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 28, 2019
Democrats hold a 13-9 majority on the House Intelligence Committee.
The Republican letter calling on Chairman Schiff to step down followed a notice to Congress from U.S. Attorney General William Barr declaring that Mueller’s “special counsel investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election.”