(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 82, is reportedly grooming fellow California Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff to take up the mantle after she ever relinquishes her leadership role.
According to Breitbart, political insiders say Schiff “is gauging members’ interest and planting the seed” for a potential rise to the speakership.
As the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Schiff already receives highly classified briefings on national security and has routinely used those to spread lies and misinformation advancing Democrats’ partisan objectives. He held lead roles in both impeachment efforts against former President Donald Trump and currently sits on the partisan Jan. 6 committee.
Though Schiff has gained credibility among leftists for his zealous pushing of the Russian collusion hoax, some in the Democratic caucus find him insufficient for the job because he is not diverse enough.
But the opinions of rank-and-file congressmen are not likely to matter in the face of Pelosi’s wishes. The Los Angeles Times recently reported that Pelosi “has quietly been grooming potential successors, among them Rep. Adam Schiff.”
Schiff is no stranger to the grooming process, having long fought of rumors and insinuations of pedophilia, although he is married with two children.
Love this old photo of me and my Little Brother David from the 1980’s. #BeAMentor like I was for @BBBSLA – it’s life-changing! pic.twitter.com/qtGNBjCMMb
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 1, 2017
Pelosi, who is widely expected to lose the House majority in this year’s midterm election, has suggested recently that she eventually plans to step away from the hustle and bustle of D.C. politics.
“I have things to do,” she said. “Books to write; places to go; grandchildren, first and foremost, to love.”
Her husband, Paul, recently sold off stock in the microchip company Nvidia at a loss of $340,000 following allegations that he used his privileged knowledge of the legislative agenda to engage in insider trading.
He also has been the subject of major scrutiny in conservative media following an arrest for driving under the influence.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the current top-ranked Republican and frontrunner to replace Pelosi as speaker, noted that Schiff has been the recipient of a great deal of favoritism in the past several years, emanating chiefly from Pelosi.
He has hinted that Schiff may be stripped of his committee memberships under a GOP-led Congress.
“The Democrats have created a new thing where they’re picking and choosing who can be on committees,” McCarthy said, referring to Pelosi’s stripping of Reps. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., of their committee memberships.
“You look at Adam Schiff—he should not be serving on Intel when he has openly, knowingly now used a fake dossier, lied to the American public in the process and doesn’t have any ill will [and] says he wants to continue to do it,” McCarthy added.
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
