The House of Representatives has only censured two dozen members in more than 200 years. But when Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. was added to that exclusive club last June, he said he was honored by the distinction.

“You honor me with your enmity. You flatter me with this falsehood. You who are the authors of a ‘big lie’ about the last election must condemn the truth tellers,” said Schiff in a speech from the well of the House before the vote. He told Spectrum News after the vote that he would wear the censure as a badge of honor — and now, eight months later, he says he still does.

“One thing you can tell about Donald Trump, and that is he ignores people that he’s not worried about, ignores people who are not effective. But those who are effective, those that stand up to him — he goes after them,” Schiff said, sitting in his office on Capitol Hill. “He runs that party, tragically, but I am proud of standing up to him. I will continue to stand up to him no matter what they throw my way.”

Schiff entered Congress in 2001, but he became a household name to many Americans after Donald Trump became president. As Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Schiff was tapped to lead Trump’s first impeachment trial, and he later served on the Jan. 6 committee that investigated the events leading up to the attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

“I think prior to Trump, I was widely viewed as a very thoughtful, bipartisan lawmaker, [who] worked on a lot of national security issues, worked on a lot of economic issues, bringing home resources to my district. But then Donald Trump was elected. As it turned out, as the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, a foreign government worked hard to try to help him get elected, and it fell on our committee to investigate that,” Schiff said.

“I was thrust into the spotlight of having to both investigate the former president but also defend our democracy.”

Schiff, a former federal prosecutor before he became a California state senator and then a member of Congress, was one of the final holdouts when it came to the decision to move forward with Trump’s first impeachment. Initially, he wanted to wait until special counsel Robert Mueller issued his report. But that reasoning changed.

“We learned about even more serious misconduct on Donald Trump’s part, and that was the Ukraine-related misconduct. And when we learned that he had withheld all of this money to an ally that was at war with our adversary in order to extort their President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy into helping him in his campaign, helping him smear Joe Biden — that was such a clear abuse of presidential power, such a clear, impeachable offense, that I certainly made the decision, speaking for myself — that we needed to move forward with impeachment,” he recalled of his decision.

The Senate ultimately did not convict Trump, but Schiff was not done investigating the former president. After Trump attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which culminated in his supporters storming the Capitol to try and block Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s win, Pelosi tapped the Burbank congressman, one of her trusted allies to serve on the special Jan. 6 Committee. 

Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith brought charges against Trump for his alleged election interference efforts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress. Schiff has told Spectrum News in the past he believes the committee’s work was responsible in part for the indictment.

“It was enormously important, I think, for the Jan. 6 committee to actually put the facts before the American people to do so in a nonpartisan way to expose the evidence, I think was also important for the Justice Department to see that evidence, because I think their investigations would not have taken place, but for the work of the Jan. 6 Committee,” Schiff said. “I was on the House floor on Jan. 6, I was one of those that had to be evacuated. I was there until you could hear the mob outside the House chamber. I never want to see our country go through that again.”

Schiff’s prominence may be paying fundraising dividends for Schiff as he runs for the U.S. Senate. He currently boasts a $35 million war chest, the most among all the candidates vying to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. He also drew on his investigative experience in sponsoring the Protecting Our Democracy Act in 2021, and reintroducing it last year. 

“[It’s] essentially a package of reforms that are designed to rebuild the guardrails that came down under the last presidency, to secure our democracy for future generations. And the case I make to Republicans is very simple: don’t you want to make sure that you have these protections, potentially against the Democratic president if we should have a Democratic president who is abusing the powers of his office? Don’t you want to be able to enforce congressional subpoenas and not have a Democratic president do what Donald Trump did and say, ‘I’m going to stonewall all subpoenas’? And I think there was a lot of recognition on the other side of the aisle that yes, these protections are really important.”

The bill passed when Democrats controlled the chamber, but has yet to get a vote in the Republican-controlled House.

Despite becoming a foil for Republicans across the country, Schiff says he has no problem reaching across the aisle to work with colleagues

“Even through the hardest of the Trump years, I’ve been able to work with Republicans to continue to build on our mass transit, to bring resources back to California — you have to be able to compartmentalize,” said Schiff. “Even when I was fighting with Devin Nunes, who was the top Republican on the Intel intelligence community, over Trump, Russia, Ukraine — we continued to get our intelligence authorization bills done every year — and so that’s what you have to do sometimes say, ‘I’m going to fight you on this. But we need to work together on this.’”

Schiff calls Feinstein “a partner of mine.” The two spent roughly 23 years together on Capitol Hill, working on issues such as intelligence and gun safety reforms.

“I think what she taught me just through her example is to be really well prepared — there was no one better prepared than Dianne Feinstein for any issue you may go to talk with her about,” he recalled of his late colleague. “Stick up for your principles, to stand up to bullies. We’ve worked together on investigation into torture at the CIA, and I admire her courage and doing it. I admire her taking on the NRA to pass an assault weapons ban. I’ve taken on the NRA to try to take away their immunity from liability.”

“We’ve had very parallel priorities and tracks in the House and Senate,” he continued. “It would be an extraordinary honor to try to step into her enormous shoes.”

Schiff has sponsored landmark legislation such as Katie’s Law, which established a program to provide grants to states which implement DNA collection programs for arrestees of murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary, and aggravated assault. States are authorized to collect DNA for a larger set of crimes but must do so for those felony arrests. He’s also been recognized as the “Father of the Gold Line,” a metro rail project in the San Gabriel Valley.

“I think the ability I’ve had to help Californians, help them put food on the table, help them pay their rent, help make sure that they can have a safe community and good public schools. I’m very proud of that work,” said Schiff. “I’m also deeply proud of having stood up to a corrupt president. And having led his impeachment and having served on that January 6 committee. We have never seen such a fragile time in the life of our democracy. And we are not out of the woods and not by a long stretch.”

“​​We lost with the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs, reproductive freedom for millions and millions of people,” he explained. “That’s the sign of a democracy that is in danger when you start losing your rights, not gaining them. These are very tangible things. And I think it’s important for us to point out the consequences of any step toward autocracy.”

Schiff, the only Jewish candidate in the Senate race, is adamant that Israel has the right to defend itself. His main Democratic opponents are calling for a ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Hamas, but Schiff does not go that far, supporting “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting between Hamas and Israel. Schiff says he hears “a tremendous amount of concern within the Jewish community over the dramatic increase in anti-Semitism.”

“The swastikas that are painted on synagogues, the attacks on people because they’re Jewish — and a lot of concern too among Jews and others about the rise of Islamophobia, the rise of hate overall,” said Schiff. “I do believe that, after that horrendous terrorist attack, Israel has a right to defend itself, it has a duty to defend itself. And I support Israel’s right to do that. I also support the President’s efforts to work with Israel to reduce civilian casualties, and my heartbreaks for the loss of life in Gaza. And it seems to me we can both grieve the loss of Israeli lives, and the loss of Palestinian lives. But I do think Israel needs to defend itself. And I think we need to push back all Americans against this explosion of hate. I know I’m doing everything I can — I’ve been the subject of a lot of that hate myself, from time to time.”

Schiff, as he makes his Senate bid, says he wants to make sure he’s doing right by his children - and the children of millions of Americans.

“I think at the end of the day, what Californians are really looking for is who’s going to affect the quality of my life, who’s going to make sure that I can afford my home, that I can have a place to live that I can provide for my family, that my kids can go to a good school, that my kids will have a better life than I’ve had. And that was the view of my parents,” he said. “They raised my brother and me to value our public school education and to give back. For me, public service is all about service. It’s all about giving back.”

“I want my kids to be proud of what their dad did when he had the chance to serve in Congress and I hope in the Senate, and that’s really my North Star. What my parents taught me and what I want for my kids and everyone’s kids.”

Click here to read our interview with Rep. Barbara Lee

Click here to read our interview with Rep. Katie Porter