After high-profile clashes with Trump, Adam Schiff will soon have a new title: Freshman
Rep. Adam B. Schiff is a darling of the Democrats, a fighter and political veteran accustomed to the limelight on Sunday talk shows and on the House floor.
In the Senate, the Burbank Democrat will carry a new title: freshman.
Schiff easily won California's U.S. Senate race on Nov. 5, and will be sworn in next month to serve out the remainder of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein's term. He will start a six-year Senate term in January, the same month that his most powerful antagonist, President-elect Donald Trump, will move back into the White House.
Trump's election puts Schiff in a unique position for a freshman senator. Trump has vowed to spend his second term pursuing his political enemies, including Schiff, whom he has variously described as a "liar," "traitor," "shifty," "evil," "pencil neck" and one of the country's "enemies from within."
Schiff will be navigating a new workplace for the first time since 2001, contending with nuts-and-bolts issues like committee assignments and office space, and trying to build relationships to pass laws that benefit California. He will have to do so while contending with the expectations that come with his national profile as a vociferous Trump critic.
"When he walks onto the Senate floor for the first time, Republican senators are going to look around and say, 'So there he is,' ” said Jim Manley, a former senior advisor to the late Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. "They're going to try to size him up, because all they've read, all they've heard for the last few years, is the soon-to-be president demonizing the guy."
Schiff declined to be interviewed for this story, but recently told Times columnist Mark Z. Barabak that he plans to focus on bringing down the cost of living for working- and middle-class families. He wants to rein in the rising costs of food, housing and child care and build more housing to address the state's twin crises of high housing costs and homelessness.
“They're the same issues, in part, that Republicans campaigned on and Trump campaigned on," Schiff said. "Where they're serious … they'll find a willing ally."
Despite that conciliatory tone, Schiff also has promised to stand firm against the incoming president if he threatens Californians. In a victory speech on election night, the senator-elect said that he was "committed to taking on the big fights to protect our freedoms and to protect our democracy."
With Schiff's election, California will have two male senators for the first time since the early 1990s, neither with much seniority. He'll be the junior senator to Alex Padilla, who was appointed to the Senate in 2021 and elected to a full term in 2022.
Republicans will have a majority in the Senate next year, but Schiff will still wield a significant amount of power, said former California Sen. Barbara Boxer.
Republicans controlled the Senate for most of Boxer's 24 years in the chamber, including several terms when they held 55 of 100 seats. Speaking from experience, she said, Democrats shouldn't expect to control the discussion around bills, but there are other ways to make their points, including "taking to the floor, all night, overnight," holding news conferences, and inviting expert speakers to their caucus meetings.
She said personal relationships and bipartisanship matter more in the Senate than in the House. She cited an old adage: The House of Representatives is the hot tea, and the Senate is the saucer where things cool down.
"I'm sure there are die-hard MAGA senators who aren't going to be happy that Adam Schiff is showing up, but he's a smart, thoughtful and reasonable person," Boxer said. "The Senate is such a personal body. There's more working across the aisle than it appears. That's all built on relationships and trust and credibility."
moar bullshit continues here
https://www.yahoo.com/news/high-profile-clashes-trump-adam-110023323.html