House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday introduced the impeachment managers who will be making the case to the Senate to convict and remove President Trump. The House will approve their selection in a floor vote later on Wednesday, the final necessary step before the House transmits its impeachment articles to the Senate.
Here is a look at who is on the House managers team and the experience they bring to it:
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA): The least surprising name on Pelosi’s list is Schiff, who expertly guided two weeks of public witness testimony last year. Those hearings managed to produce several bombshells, even though the witnesses’ private depositions about Trump’s Ukraine conduct had already been released. Schiff was first elected to Congress in 2000, taking out a vocal supporter of Bill Clinton’s impeachment. He operated under the radar for his first few terms, but his position as top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee put him in the spotlight as the normally staid and bipartisan panel devolved into drama and partisanship over the Russia probe. Schiff has also served as an impeachment manager before, for the 2010 removal of U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY): The selection of Nadler also was a given, as Nadler presides over the committee most relevant to the impeachment process and shepherded the second half of the House public hearings. Nadler’s prominent role in the Trump impeachment feels full circle for the two New Yorkers: Nadler and Trump first faced off in the 1980s over Trump real estate deals in the district Nadler represented in the state assembly. Elected to Congress in 1992, Nadler has served on the Judiciary Committee for more than a decade — including during the Clinton impeachment.
Rep. Val Demings (D-FL): As a member of both the Judiciary Committee and the Intelligence Committee, Demings had a front row seat — literally— for the entirety of the House’s impeachment proceedings. Prior to her election to Congress in 2016, Demings was a police officer who rose through the ranks to be Orlando’s first female chief of police in 2007.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA): A senior member of the Judiciary Committee, Lofgren has served in Congress since 1995. She is also Chair of the House Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over federal election issues. She is a veteran of both the Nixon and Clinton impeachments, having served as a Judiciary Committee staffer during the former and as a member of Judiciary Committee for the latter.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY): The Brooklynite is a member of the Judiciary Committee and also is the chairman of House Democratic Caucus. This is his fourth term in Congress. Before jumping into politics, Jeffries was a litigator.
Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO): The selection of Crow, a first-term congressman from Colorado, is somewhat of a surprise. He is not a member of the Judiciary Committee or the Intelligence Committee. However, he is a lawyer and a military veteran.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX): Garcia’s election to Congress in 2018 was historic, as she was one of two Latina women elected that year to represent Texas— a first for the state. She serves on the Judiciary and Financial Services committees. She is a lawyer as well.
And the staffers who will be supporting them and working countless hours are sure to be an impressive group, too.
Go Adam!
ETA: straight party line votes. Why even bother with the illusion of comity?
Thank you TPM for this summery of those on the front lines of this. I’m happy with the selections based on the House impeachment hearing that I saw (not too much) My take on Rep. Crow is that this will hopefully lead to more coverage of the event on CO, if that is even possible. This puts more heat on Sen. Cory Gardner who is already in big trouble in the polls.
Wow - women and people of color - you don’t need a scorecard to know which party this team represents.
Only one white male gentile? What is this country coming to?