1. Adam Schiff chaired the House Intelligence Committee from 2019 to 2023 before being removed from it by Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy.
57 Facts About Adam Schiff
1. 2.
Adam Schiff previously served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
3.
Adam Schiff was the lead impeachment manager in the first impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
4.
Adam Schiff had previously served as the joint-lead impeachment manager in two other judicial impeachment trials.
5.
Adam Schiff was elected to the Senate in 2024, defeating fellow Democratic US representatives Katie Porter and Barbara Lee in the primary and Republican Steve Garvey in the general election.
6.
Adam Schiff was sworn into the Senate on December 9,2024.
7.
Adam Schiff was born on June 22,1960, in Framingham, Massachusetts, the son of Edward and Sherrill Ann Adam Schiff.
8.
Adam Schiff is the great-grandson of Lithuanian Jews who fled antisemitism in Eastern Europe.
9.
Adam Schiff moved with his parents to Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1970 and Alamo, California, in 1972.
10.
Adam Schiff received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Stanford University in 1982 and graduated with distinction.
11.
Adam Schiff worked as a student research assistant for Professor Laurence Tribe.
12.
In that position, Adam Schiff came to public attention when he prosecuted the case against Richard Miller, a former FBI agent who spied for the Soviet Union.
13.
In May 1994, Schiff was a candidate for the 43rd district seat in the California State Assembly in a special election and lost to Republican nominee James E Rogan.
14.
In 1996, Adam Schiff was elected to represent the 21st district in the California State Senate, defeating Republican assemblywoman Paula Boland, who had moved into the district to run.
15.
In 2000, Schiff challenged James E Rogan, the incumbent, in what was then California's 27th congressional district.
16.
Adam Schiff became only the second Democrat to represent this district since its creation in 1913.
17.
Adam Schiff's district became even more Democratic after the 2010 census, when it was renumbered the 28th and pushed into Los Angeles proper.
18.
In 2018, Adam Schiff initially competed in the primary with Democratic challenger Kim Gruenenfelder.
19.
In 2020, Schiff faced a crowded primary, which included Republican attorney Eric Early and Democratic drag queen Maebe A Girl.
20.
Adam Schiff won the primary with a majority of the vote, with Girl and Early in a close race for second.
21.
In January 2022, Adam Schiff announced he would run for reelection in the new 30th district.
22.
In lieu of running for a 13th term, Adam Schiff ran to succeed Dianne Feinstein in the United States Senate in 2024, and won.
23.
Adam Schiff voted in favor of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
24.
Adam Schiff has been a leading voice in Armenian-American issues; he claims that over 70,000 Armenian-Americans reside in his district.
25.
Adam Schiff has an "A+" rating and is endorsed by the Armenian National Committee of America.
26.
Adam Schiff has been a prominent supporter of surveillance reform, especially in the wake of Edward Snowden's leaks of classified intelligence.
27.
Adam Schiff introduced several bills aimed at reforming the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, including a bill to require outside counsel to be appointed to argue for privacy and civil liberties protections in certain cases before the Court.
28.
Adam Schiff had participated in the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence investigation into the attacks on the Benghazi diplomatic compound, which found that the initial talking points the intelligence community provided were flawed but not intended to deceive, and that diplomatic facilities across the world lacked adequate security.
29.
In 2006, Adam Schiff formed the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Caucus for the Freedom of the Press, aimed at advancing press freedom around the world.
30.
Adam Schiff has been a forceful proponent of debating and voting on a new war authorization against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
31.
Adam Schiff has been a supporter of national defense spending, voting for every increase in the defense budget during his career.
32.
Todd asked whether he had seen direct evidence of collusion and Adam Schiff responded that there was "evidence that is not circumstantial and is very much worthy of investigation".
33.
Adam Schiff responded on Twitter that the president's "comments and actions are beneath the dignity of the office".
34.
In December 2018, Adam Schiff suggested that Trump associate Roger Stone might have lied to Congress, and said the transcript of his testimony should be forwarded to the Special Counsel.
35.
When he became chair of the House Intelligence Committee in 2019, Adam Schiff embarked on a personal mission to investigate Trump's connections to Russia, separate from the Special Counsel investigation.
36.
On March 28,2019, the nine Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee officially called for Adam Schiff to resign due to his allegations that Trump's campaign colluded with Russians in the 2016 election.
37.
Adam Schiff responded by accusing the Republican members of tolerating "immoral" and "corrupt" conduct by Trump campaign members and administration appointees.
38.
The resolution established that Adam Schiff misled the American public with "falsehoods, misrepresentations and abuses of sensitive information" about the election and as part of the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
39.
Adam Schiff called North Korea "one of the most brutal and despotic regimes in the world".
40.
The tweet received widespread bipartisan condemnation, including from Adam Schiff, for implying that lobby money was fueling American politicians' support of Israel.
41.
Adam Schiff said it was "never acceptable to give voice to, or repeat, anti-Semitic smears".
42.
In October 2023, Adam Schiff condemned Hamas's actions during the Gaza war and expressed his support for Israel and its right to self-defense.
43.
Adam Schiff rejected calls for a ceasefire but said he supported "humanitarian pauses" to deliver aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
44.
The AIPAC-affiliated Super PAC, United Democracy Project, gave $5 million to the pro-Adam Schiff superpac Standing Strong during Adam Schiff's 2024 Senate primary campaign, as confirmed by its spokesman, Patrick Dorton.
45.
In 2009, Schiff was appointed and served as an impeachment manager in the impeachment trial of Judge Samuel B Kent.
46.
The next year, Adam Schiff was appointed and served as an impeachment manager in the impeachment trial of Judge Thomas Porteous.
47.
On June 21,2022, Adam Schiff led Day 4 of the committee's public hearings, which included testimony from three Republican officials to whom Trump reached out after the election: Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, his deputy Gabe Sterling, and Arizona House of Representatives speaker Rusty Bowers.
48.
Adam Schiff was interviewed after the hearing by reporters and called the testimony "enormously powerful".
49.
Axios reported in February 2021 that Adam Schiff was lobbying Governor Gavin Newsom and his allies to appoint him as Attorney General, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi's approval.
50.
On January 26,2023, Adam Schiff declared his candidacy for the United States Senate in the 2024 election.
51.
On November 5, Adam Schiff won both the election to complete Feinstein's remaining term and the election for the Senate term beginning on January 3,2025.
52.
Adam Schiff was sworn in on December 9,2024, as a junior US senator in the 118th United States Congress.
53.
Adam Schiff met his wife, Eve Sanderson, on a tennis court in 1990.
54.
Adam Schiff has participated in multiple endurance challenges, including triathlons and marathons.
55.
Adam Schiff was the only US representative to participate in the inaugural Washington, DC, triathlon in 2010 and has since participated in races in Philadelphia, New York City, and Malibu.
56.
The New Yorker reported in 2018 that "Adam Schiff has been writing screenplays on the side for years", including a murder mystery, a post-Holocaust story, and a spy drama.
57.
In October 2021, Adam Schiff published Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could, a book recounting the effects of the Trump presidency.