Amidst the network's mighty struggle to restore its tarnished reputation as a trusted source in cable news, CNN host Dana Bash asked California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff some tough questions on Sunday's edition of "State of the Union."

She began, "You said that there was direct evidence of the fact that [former President] Donald Trump colluded with Russia back in 2016." Quoting from special counsel Robert Mueller's report, she said, "The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government."

"Republicans argue that's proof that you used your position on the [House] Intelligence Committee to intentionally mislead Americans, which is why you should not be on that committee."

Congenital liar Schiff immediately went into spin mode. He told Bash, "If you read the Mueller report, he makes clear ... that he states no conclusion on whether Donald Trump and his campaign colluded with the Russians."

"But what he does reveal in his report, what we found in our investigation is that Donald Trump's campaign manager was sharing internal campaign polling data and their strategy for battleground states with an agent of Russian intelligence while that same unit of Russian intelligence was helping the Trump campaign," Schiff said.

Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager did share polling data with a Ukrainian businessman named Konstantin Kilimnik. And the Mueller report did say that Kilimnik was tied to Russian intelligence.

However, in a June 2019 article published by The Hill, investigative journalist John Solomon reported that rather than being "an agent of Russia," Kilimnik was a State Department intelligence source "going back to at least 2013." Solomon wrote, "[H]undreds of pages of government documents -- which special counsel Robert Mueller possessed since 2018 -- describe Kilimnik as a 'sensitive' intelligence source for the U.S. State Department who informed on Ukrainian and Russian matters."

Democrat Adam Schiff triples down on the Russian collusion hoax. pic.twitter.com/T4HmvT1QVe

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 29, 2023

Schiff told Bash he wanted to "set the record straight." He said, "This is only one of a shifting series of rationalizations and pretexts that McCarthy is using" against him.

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In the next clip, Bash said, "Let me give you another. ... Ahead of the first Trump impeachment, you said the committee had not spoken to a whistleblower. In fact, that turned out not to be true." She added that a Washington Post fact check had concluded his claim was false.

The dishonest congressman replied that he "should have been more clear" in his answer. He told Bash: "The Washington Post identified that yes, before the person became a whistleblower, they sought advice from the committee. When I was asked the question, I thought they were referring to whether we had brought the whistleblower in, and I should have been more clear in my answer."

Schiff continued, "But again, let's be clear [about] what's really going on here. McCarthy has said Adam Schiff prosecuted the case against Trump -- Ukraine -- the impeachment was a hoax. You know, he's given 15 explanations. The only real explanation is, he needs Marjorie Taylor Greene's vote, he needs Paul Gosar's vote, he wants to retaliate for their removal from the committee, and apparently he believes I was very effective in exposing his misconduct, Donald Trump's misconduct, and that's what they're trying to stop."

And mercifully, he concluded, "You know, I think that he benefits from having these smears repeated, and that's part of what he gains from it, but this is a pretext and nothing more."

Bash rescued him. "Yeah, which is why this is a chance for you to explain and to give your side of that as opposed to just simply repeating it."

Yeah ... no.

"Ahead of the first Trump impeachment, you said the committee had not spoken to a whistleblower. In fact, that turned out not to be true."

ADAM SCHIFF: "I should've been more clear." pic.twitter.com/6qZsQbTwdE

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 29, 2023

Schiff's full exchange with Bash can be viewed below.

Schiff was operating at his usual level of veracity on Sunday, which is to say he was lying through his teeth -- again.

For over three years, Schiff was the face of the Democrats’ failed effort to connect Trump to the Russians. He arrived in Washington in 2001 and remained obscure until he recognized his moment had arrived at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

He became a cheerleader for the narrative at the time, which was that the Russians had hacked the DNC’s computer to help Trump win the election. Happy to talk to any reporter, he soon became the “go-to guy” for anything related to the Trump/Russia investigation. Schiff was finally receiving the attention he’d craved for so long. He never missed an opportunity to assure the American people that evidence of Trump’s collusion with Russia was hiding in plain sight. He’d found his niche.

Crestfallen after the Mueller investigation came up empty-handed, he seized upon Trump's July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his next act. Schiff's deceitful, manipulative actions in using that call to impeach Trump could fill a book.

Unfortunately for this corrupt man who abused his position of power so excessively, he has now lost all credibility.

His time in the spotlight is over, and he's become as irrelevant as he was throughout his first 15 years in Washington.

I wonder if he's fully grasped the fact that the jig is up.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.