House Republicans on Wednesday voted to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a rare reprimand of a sitting lawmaker that the GOP conference delivered as a rebuke for his efforts against former President Trump.

The vote — 213-209-6 — is the culmination of a week-long push led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), which was stymied last week when a band of Republicans joined Democrats in blocking a censure resolution from coming to the floor for a vote. It advanced on Wednesday after Luna made changes to the measure.

It also marked the apex of Republicans’ years-long campaign against Schiff, who emerged as a bogeyman on the right for his unrelenting criticism of Trump’s alleged ties with Russia, and was cemented as a chief GOP adversary on Capitol Hill when he led the first impeachment inquiry targeting Trump.

A stunning scene took place after the vote, as Democrats in the chamber surrounded Schiff on the House floor, chanting “Adam, Adam.” They interrupted Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who had taken the gavel for the vote, repeatedly as he tried to deliver the results of the vote.

Schiff — who is currently entrenched in a competitive Senate primary against two House colleagues — embraced the extraordinary punishment, declaring on the floor in an impassioned speech that he would repeat his past actions of holding “a dangerous and out of control president accountable” if called upon to do so in the future.

“Today, I wear this partisan vote as a badge of honor,” Schiff said Wednesday. “Knowing that I have lived my oath. Knowing that I have done my duty, to hold a dangerous and out of control president accountable. And knowing that I would do so again — in a heartbeat — if the circumstances should ever require it.”

Luna’s resolution censures Schiff “for misleading the American public and for conduct unbecoming of an elected Member of the House of Representatives,” and it directs the Ethics Committee to conduct an investigation into the congressman’s “falsehoods, misrepresentations, and abuses of sensitive information.”

The four-page measure accuses Schiff of spreading false claims that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, abusing the trust afforded to him as chairman and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee when airing the Trump-Russia allegations, and behaving “dishonestly and dishonorably” when discussing events related to Trump’s first impeachment.

“The American people do not trust Congress. The cyclical pattern of lies has worn down the credibility of every institution and every official in the United States government. You see it, I see it,” Luna said on the House floor during debate Wednesday.

“If we run away from the opportunity to hold this man accountable there is only one fault, and that is of ourselves,” she continued. “We will betray the people who trusted us and sent us here to do the right thing, we will be responsible of any shred of justice in this body, and we will reject the duty that we swore an oath to protect upon taking office.”

Luna first moved to censure Schiff last week, bringing a censure resolution — which she introduced last month — to the floor as a privileged measure, which forced the House to act on it. But 20 Republicans joined Democrats in supporting a motion to table the measure, a move that blocked it from coming to the floor for a vote.

A number of the GOP defectors took issue with a non-binding “whereas” clause in the measure that said if the Ethics Committee found that Schiff “lied, made misrepresentations, and abused sensitive information,” he should be fined $16 million, saying that it was unconstitutional. That dollar figure, the resolution claimed, was half the amount of money that American taxpayers paid to fund the investigation into potential collusion between Trump and Russia.

In an effort to allay those concerns, Luna introduced a new, revamped resolution at the end of last week that nixed the fine language — the chief difference between the two — and made a handful of other revisions. Additionally, the new resolution just calls for censuring Schiff while the original involved censuring and condemning the congressman.

The Florida Republican called the revised resolution to the floor as a privileged measure on Tuesday, restarting the process for the second time in a week and forcing another vote.

The changes were enough to erase the GOP concerns: all Republicans voted against a Democratic-led motion to table the resolution, sending it to the floor for a vote and setting up what would become just the sixth censure of a lawmaker since 1980, and the twenty-fifth in history, according to the House website.

The House last censured a lawmaker in November 2021, when Democrats delivered a rebuke to Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) for posting an anime video depicting him violently attacking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and President Biden. Before that, the most recent censures were in December 2010 and July 1983.

It was not, however, the House GOP’s first rebuke of Schiff. Earlier this year, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) blocked him and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from serving on the House Intelligence Committee. Luna has also filed a resolution to expel Schiff, though it has not progressed in the chamber.

Throughout the week-long censure saga, Democrats accused Luna — a vocal Trump supporter — and Republicans of launching an effort against Schiff as a way to distract from the former president’s legal troubles. Trump was indicted by the Justice Department on 37 counts earlier this month as part of the investigation into his mishandling of classified documents. He pleaded not guilty.

“The party of Lincoln and his Lincolnites has become the party of Luna and her Luna followers. Today's mad-cap antics are an obvious deflection from Trump's deepening legal troubles,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the Oversight Committee, said on the House floor.

“The GOP simply has no ideas for our economy, no ideas for our country and no idea for our people, but is on an embarrassing revenge tour on behalf of Donald Trump, who treats them like a ventriloquist's dummy,” he later added.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Republicans transformed the House into a “puppet show.”

“Today we are on the floor of the House, where the other side has turned this body, this chamber — where slavery was abolished, where Medicare and social security and everything were instituted — they’ve turned it into a puppet show. A puppet show,” she said during debate on the floor Wednesday.

Pelosi, who endorsed Schiff in his Senate race, was seated next to her colleague from California during a portion of Wednesday’s vote.

“And you know what?” Pelosi added, "the puppeteer, Donald Trump, is shining a light on the strings. You look miserable.”

Luna, for her part, disputed the claim that Republicans were bringing the Schiff resolution because of Trump. 

“If we want to talk about these little, fun games and comments back and forth, we’re here not about Donald Trump, we’re not here about Jan. 6, we’re here about the former chairman of the Intelligence Committee that used a lie that broke apart this country,” Luna said during debate.

The House advanced a resolution Wednesday to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), overcoming a procedural hurdle that blocked a similar measure targeting the Democrat last week and teeing up a final vote later in the day.

A motion to table the measure was rejected 218-208 on party lines, with Republicans rejecting the Democratic-led effort to block the resolution from coming to the floor for a vote.

The chamber is expected to vote on the censure resolution, which will require a simple majority, late Wednesday afternoon. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters Tuesday that he expects the resolution to pass the House.

Wednesday’s vote marked the second time the House voted on a motion to table a resolution to censure Schiff for his handling of investigations into former President Trump.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) forced a vote on a resolution to censure Schiff last week, but the effort was blocked after 20 Republicans joined Democrats in supporting a motion to table the measure, effectively killing it.

Some of the GOP defectors raised concerns with a nonbinding “whereas” clause in the resolution that said if the Ethics Committee found that Schiff “lied, made misrepresentations, and abused sensitive information,” he should be fined $16 million.

That number was half the amount of money that American taxpayers paid to fund the investigation into potential collusion between Trump and Russia, according to the resolution.

Luna, however, introduced a revised censure resolution last week — which nixed the fine language, among other changes — and brought it to the floor as a privileged measure Tuesday.

A number of last week’s GOP defectors changed their vote and helped advance the bill Wednesday.

Luna’s resolution seeks to censure Schiff “for misleading the American public and for conduct unbecoming of an elected Member of the House of Representatives.” It would also direct the Ethics Committee to conduct an investigation of him.

In addition to removing language about a $16 million fine, the revised Schiff censure resolution just calls for censuring Schiff; last week’s involved censuring and condemning the congressman.

The new version also omitted nonbinding “whereas” clauses that say Schiff “purposely deceived his Committee, Congress, and the American people” and that he “exploited” his positions on the House Intelligence Committee “to encourage and excuse abusive intelligence investigations of Americans for political purposes.”

The revamped resolution does, however, add several clauses: It cites a March 2019 letter signed by Republicans on the Intelligence panel calling on Schiff — the committee's chairman at the time — to resign from the top post, argues that Schiff “hindered the ability of the Intelligence Committee to fulfill its oversight responsibilities over the Intelligence Community” and says he “misled the American people and brought disrepute upon the House of Representatives.”

The House on Wednesday effectively killed a resolution to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), voting for a Democratic-led motion to table the measure.

The chamber voted 225-196-7 to table the resolution. Twenty Republicans voted with Democrats to table the measure, while seven lawmakers — five Democrats, two Republicans — voted present.

“I think it says that Trump and his MAGA supporters view me as a threat,” Schiff said shortly after the resolution was tabled. “There’s a reason they signaled me out — they think I was effective in holding them accountable. And they won’t stop me.”

“And I think frankly this [is] deeply counterproductive to that goal but that’s their aim, to go after anybody that stands up to them, to try to make an example out of them. But it’s not gonna deter me for a moment,” he added.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) introduced the censure measure in May but brought it to the floor as a privileged resolution on Tuesday, forcing the House to take action on the legislation. Democratic leadership motioned to table the measure, which requires a simple majority vote.

The effort by House Republicans to censure Schiff is the latest iteration of the conference’s longtime crusade against the California Democrat, who became a bogeyman to the right after spearheading efforts against former President Trump while he was in the White House.

A resolution to censure Rep. Adam Schiff was blocked by the House after twenty Republicans voted with Democrats to table the measure. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Schiff, as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, led the first impeachment inquiry into Trump, which ended with the House impeaching him for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Schiff was also at the forefront of Democratic accusations that Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.

In January, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) blocked Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from serving on the Intelligence panel, following through on a promise he made before securing the Speaker’s gavel. He said the decision was made “in order to maintain a standard worthy of this committee’s responsibilities.”

And in May, Luna filed a resolution to expel Schiff, who is running for Senate, from the House.

As Schiff was speaking to reporters in the Capitol following the vote, Luna walked by and announced that she is planning to file another resolution to censure the California Democrat next week.

“I'll be filing to censure you next week,” she said. “And we'll get the votes for that.”

Asked about the interaction, Schiff said “this is what it takes to ratify Donald Trump.”

Luna’s censure resolution, which spans four pages, calls for censuring and condemning Schiff “for conduct that misleads the American people in a way that is not befitting an elected Member of the House of Representatives.” It would also direct the Ethics Committee to conduct an investigation into Schiff’s “lies, misrepresentations, and abuses of sensitive information.”

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Luna, a staunch Trump ally, brought the measure to the floor as a privileged resolution the same day the former president pleaded not guilty to 37 counts brought against him by the Department of Justice as part of the investigation into his handling of classified documents. Prosecutors allege that Trump willfully retained classified records and then obstructed efforts by authorities to collect them.

In a letter to Democratic colleagues on Tuesday, Schiff argued that Luna was forcing a vote on the censure resolution — which he called “false and defamatory” — to distract from Trump’s legal woes. He said it would discipline him for his work “holding Donald Trump accountable.”

“This partisan resolution to censure and fine me $16 million is only the latest attempt to gratify the former President’s MAGA allies, and distract from Donald Trump’s legal troubles by retaliating against me for my role in exposing his abuses of power, and leading the first impeachment against him,” he wrote.

“The intent of this resolution goes far beyond me and my role leading investigations of Donald Trump, and his first impeachment — an effort I would undertake again, and in a heartbeat, if it were necessary,” he later added. “This resolution plainly demonstrates the lengths our GOP colleagues will go to protect Donald Trump’s infinite lies – lies that incited a violent attack on this very building.”

Schiff also asserted that the censure resolution was “a clear attack on our constitutional system of checks and balances.”

“Once again, our GOP colleagues are using the leverage and resources of the House majority to rewrite history and promulgate far-right conspiracy theories — all to protect and serve Donald Trump,” he wrote.

In comments following the vote, Schiff said spending time on the floor to vote on the censure resolution was an abuse of the chamber's resources, and argued that it was a reflection of the lack of control McCarthy has over the chamber.

“But to use the House floor time this way is such an abuse of the resources of the House,” Schiff said, “and it shows how little control McCarthy has over the place that this even came to the floor.”

The resolution, which has 10 GOP cosponsors, zeroes in on Schiff’s previous comments about collusion between Trump and Russia. It cites the report from special counsel John Durham, released last month, that offered a scathing assessment of how the FBI launched and conducted an investigation into Trump’s ties to Moscow, concluding that authorities did not have sufficient information to begin the case.

It argues that Schiff “abused” the trust he was afforded as chair and ranking member of the Intelligence Committee.

“By repeatedly telling these falsehoods, Representative Shiff purposely deceived his Committee, Congress, and the American people,” the resolution reads.

The measure also includes a non-binding “whereas” clause that says if the Ethics Committee finds that Schiff “lied, made misrepresentations, and abused sensitive information” that he should be fined $16 million. Luna said that dollar figure is half the amount of money that American taxpayers paid to fund the investigation into potential collusion between Trump and Russia.

The Justice Department in August 2019 said the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller cost $32 million.

Luna’s call for financial action was a point of concern for Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who signaled ahead of the vote that he would support a motion to table the resolution. He argued that the fine would violate the Constitution.

“Adam Schiff acted unethically but if a resolution to fine him $16 million comes to the floor I will vote to table it. (vote against it)” Massie wrote on Twitter.

“The Constitution says the House may make its own rules but we can’t violate other (later) provisions of the Constitution. A $16 million fine is a violation of the 27th and 8th amendments,” he wrote in a subsequent tweet.

Updated at 6:21 p.m.

The House is looking to consider a resolution to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) this week after a Republican lawmaker moved to force a vote on the measure.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, called the censure measure to the floor as a privileged resolution Tuesday, forcing action on the legislation. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said the measure would likely come to the floor Wednesday.

“I’m working with Rep. Luna. We want it to pass, so we’ll be working closely to get it brought to the floor,” he told reporters.

Democrats can make a procedural motion to table the measure, which would effectively kill it, but that would require a majority vote. The office of House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.) said the House is expected to hold a procedural vote related to the resolution Wednesday.

Luna brought the resolution to the floor as a privileged resolution the same day that former President Trump — who was investigated by Schiff, which sparked GOP ire — pleaded not guilty to 37 counts following a Justice Department indictment on allegations that he improperly retained classified documents and refused to return them. Luna, a Trump ally, first introduced the measure May 23.

In a letter to Democratic colleagues Tuesday, first reported by CNN, Schiff called the resolution “false and defamatory” and argued that his GOP colleague was bringing it to the floor in an attempt “to gratify the former President’s MAGA allies, and distract from Donald Trump’s legal troubles by retaliating against me for my role in exposing his abuses of power, and leading the first impeachment against him.”

Schiff, who for years was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has accused Trump of colluding with Russia in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election. He also led the first impeachment inquiry of the former president, leading to the House voting to impeach the then-president for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

This is not the first time House Republicans have gone after Schiff. In January, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) blocked Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from serving on the Intelligence Committee, following through on a vow he had previously made. And in May, Luna filed a motion to expel Schiff from Congress.

Luna’s censure would condemn and censure Schiff “for conduct that misleads the American people in a way that is not befitting an elected Member of the House of Representatives.”

The legislation, which stretches four pages, zeroes in on allegations Schiff made about collusion between Russia and Trump’s team. It argues the California Democrat “abused” the trust he was afforded as chairman and ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, two roles he previously held.

Luna cites a report from special counsel John Durham that offered a scathing critique of the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign. Republicans have frequently used the report, issued last month, to bolster their argument that federal agencies have been weaponized against them.

“[Schiff] abused his position of authority, lied to the American people, cost American tax payers millions, and brought dishonor to our chamber,” Luna said on Twitter.

The resolution also said Schiff should be fined $16 million if the Ethics Committee, through an investigation, finds that the congressman “lied, made misrepresentations, and abused sensitive information.” That figure is half the amount Luna says the American taxpayers paid to fund the investigation led by Schiff into potential collusion.

Schiff told reporters Tuesday that the censure resolution was an example of Republicans “placating Trump and once again showing their undying obedience to him,” and argued that the measure was damaging for Congress as an institution.

“I think [Republican] members understand or ought to understand what they’re doing with this is just damaging to the institution,” he said. “That’s not going to damage me, but it will damage the institution and, you know it’s just another sign of the bar being lowered and lowered and lowered that they’re taking up things like this.”

He also touched on that idea in a letter to colleagues.

“But regardless of how frivolous this resolution may seem, its consideration on the House floor will ultimately come at a cost to the country, our democracy, and to the integrity of the House of Representatives,” he wrote. “This resolution is not only a terrible misuse of House precedent and resources, but a clear attack on our constitutional system of checks and balances.”

“Once again, our GOP colleagues are using the leverage and resources of the House majority to rewrite history and promulgate far-right conspiracy theories — all to protect and serve Donald Trump,” he added.

He said he does not, however, plan to whip against the vote.

Mike Lillis and Emily Brooks contributed.