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Adam Schiff's Moment in 'Jeopardy!' Spotlight Turns into Embarrassment

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He might be famous inside the Beltway these days, but when it came to a test of true stardom, Adam Schiff had to be embarrassed.

The California Democrat and conniving chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has been a headline name in recent months during the rigged impeachment of President Donald Trump in the Capitol.

So his picture popping up as an answer on the popular quiz show probably made perfect sense for the quiz show’s producers – just not so much to the contestants.

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The format of the show gives answers to questions on a given topic, to which contestants must respond in the form of a question. Schiff’s answer came Wednesday in the “Double Jeopardy” round of the show, under the category of “U.S. Representatives.”

“One-fifty-third of California’s House delegation is this House Intelligence Committee chairman,” popular host Alex Trebek read.

He was greeted by three blank faces until time expired.

“His name is Adam Schiff,” Trebek said, moving on to the next question.

Are you disappointed the "Jeopardy!" contestants didn't recognize Adam Schiff?

There’s no denying there’s an element of embarrassment for the contestants, of course. Schiff — along with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and, of course, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — is one of the key players in an effort to overturn the results of the 2016 presidential election by ousting Trump from the White House.

Every American, even game show contestants, should recognize his face. “Jeopardy!” might be a game of trivia, but there’s nothing trivial about the travesty taking place in Washington right now.

But there’s also no denying the embarrassment factor for Schiff personally and his ever more loony political party, which is pretending to be operating on behalf of the American people as it aims to destroy a presidency that has been astonishingly successful by any traditional standard.

The economy’s strong, unemployment’s low, and foreign affairs are as under control as foreign affairs can be in a dangerous world.

Commenters on social media had plenty of fun with the incident.

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Some comments were more serious:

And this one made the point perfectly.

There are a couple of caveats here.

The first is that “Jeopardy!” shows are aired months after they’re taped, so when this episode was being recorded, Schiff might not have enjoyed the notoriety that he does today.

Still, according to a Quora piece by Kenneth Jennings, father of “Jeopardy!” legend Ken Jennings, shows are usually recorded about three months before they air, which would mean Wednesday’s episode might have been recorded in October, when Schiff’s name would have been circulating outside realms occupied by only news junkies.

It should also be noted that “Jeopardy!” isn’t a perfect barometer of fame. It was only in November that uber movie star Tom Hanks went unrecognized, for instance.

But in fairness, he was shown in a scene from last year’s “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and looking a lot more like the famous Fred Rogers than his own really, really famous self.

Schiff on the other hand, looked like he always does — like a guy who laughs when you tell him you have a tooth abscess.

Regardless, every American, even those who didn’t vote for Trump, should recognize this impeachment effort for what it is, a ginned-up effort to remove a sitting president in a naked grab for power by an opposition that had its hopes of perpetual rule smashed by Trump’s remarkable upset victory in November 2016.

And as an architect of that impeachment effort, Schiff is, for good or ill, one of the most important people in American politics today.

But as the “Jeopardy!” debacle demonstrates, he’s clearly not as important to Americans as the liberal Beltway media — and probably Schiff himself — thinks he is.

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Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro desk editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He's been with Liftable Media since 2015.
Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He's been with Liftable Media since 2015. Largely a product of Catholic schools, who discovered Ayn Rand in college, Joe is a lifelong newspaperman who learned enough about the trade to be skeptical of every word ever written. He was also lucky enough to have a job that didn't need a printing press to do it.
Birthplace
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