Senator Adam Schiff is calling for an end to political attacks on presidents for the sake of Americans.
In a stunning reversal, the California Democrat, who spent years criticizing and leading congressional investigations into President Trump, delivered remarks at the Texas Tribune Festival urging politicians to avoid undermining a president for partisan gain.
Yet even as Schiff called for restraint, he continues advancing new legislation specifically aimed at limiting the president’s access to legal remedies
Schiff, who won the special election to complete the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s term, used his festival platform to warn against what he described as destructive political instincts.
Watch live: U.S. Sen. @AdamSchiff sits down with journalist @TerryMoran. #TribFest25 https://t.co/rJIhqwUqEQ
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) November 15, 2025
“That attitude that you can make a president or a party unsuccessful, no matter what damage it might do to the country, because it’s good politics — we have to get past that ruinous idea,” he began. “We have to figure out a way to stop viewing each other as our enemy.”
He argued that the first step was learning to “be better consumers of information” and hold powerful media companies accountable for driving political division.
Those companies, he said, profited from amplifying conflict and confusion, and were being rewarded “for dividing us the way they do.”
But Schiff’s warnings about political restraint raised immediate eyebrows. For more than two decades in the House of Representatives, he had been one of President Trump’s strongest detractors, serving as the lead investigator and prosecutor in Trump’s first impeachment.
Repeatedly throughout those years, Schiff painted Trump as unfit for office, routinely criticizing nearly every decision the president made.
President Trump has long argued that Schiff crossed legal and ethical boundaries in his pursuit of investigations, accusing him of mortgage fraud and publicly urging federal authorities to pursue the matter.
The Justice Department launched a probe into the allegations, which is being overseen by former interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin, who was tapped by Attorney General Pam Bondi to probe the claims.
Schiff has denied the allegations and insisted the investigation is politically motivated.
He has also just introduced new legislation intended specifically to prevent President Trump from receiving payouts from the Justice Department.
The proposal, called the No Torts for Trump Act, would amend the Federal Tort Claims Act to ensure presidents cannot pursue taxpayer-funded compensation.
The bill came after reports that Trump had asked the DOJ to compensate him roughly $230 million over what he described as years of politically driven investigations.
The legislation is co-sponsored by several Democratic senators, including Chris Van Hollen, Richard Blumenthal, Ed Markey, Mazie Hirono, Dick Durbin, Jack Reed, and Jacky Rosen.
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Schiff defended his bill by saying, “The core feature of Donald Trump’s presidency is corruption,” adding that the measure would ensure taxpayers were not “ripped off for the president’s benefit.”
Schiff continued criticizing the president during an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” where host George Stephanopoulos pressed him about Trump’s call for redirecting Affordable Care Act funds.
Trump had argued that money directed to major insurance companies should instead go to the public so Americans could purchase “much better healthcare” on their own and potentially have money left over.
Schiff dismissed the idea, telling ABC that the White House plan would effectively return the country to pre-ACA rules, where insurers could drop coverage or deny policies for individuals with preexisting conditions.
He stated that Trump’s proposal amounted to a revival of Republican ideas that had been rejected years prior.
He contended that the president’s latest proposal revealed that Republicans still lacked a viable healthcare plan, claiming that “more than eight years” after Trump’s campaign launch, the GOP remained stuck on what Trump once called “the concept of a plan.”
In October, Schiff escalated his criticism of Trump during the government shutdown, saying the country required “a president who can act like an adult.”
He claimed millions of Americans were going to face massive increases in insurance premiums, citing families in California who could see costs rise by nearly a thousand dollars per month.
He insisted Democrats recognized the urgency, but that the administration needed to negotiate an end to what he labeled a self-created healthcare crisis.
On Friday, Schiff joined MSNBC’s “The Briefing” with Jen Psaki, where he shifted focus to newly released emails tied to Jeffrey Epstein’s estate.
He argued that Congress needed to take a more aggressive oversight role, accusing the administration of selectively releasing information.
He said investigative committees were currently dependent on outside sources rather than the Trump administration itself.
Schiff commented that Congress should compel a full release of documents and that forcing a vote on the Epstein files would require the government to provide everything in its possession.
He said such a move would put a stop to the administration “cherry picking what they provide to Congress.”
“We should be doing oversight in Congress. Republicans should be helping to do that oversight,” he remarked.
“They need to release publicly what they have. These emails have already shed, I think, some significant light.”
The House is set to vote on a discharge petition this week that would force the release of unclassified Epstein documents.
Schiff told MSNBC that the latest emails had already shed “significant light,” arguing that Congress needed to continue pressing for transparency.
He also said Republicans should assist in that effort rather than defend the administration’s control over the documents.
“We should be doing oversight in Congress. Republicans should be helping to do that oversight,” he continued.
“They need to release publicly what they have. These emails have already shed, I think, some significant light.”
While acknowledging the likelihood of a veto if the measure passed, Schiff claimed the administration “would try to draw this out beyond the president’s term if they can.”
