Trump critics Adam Schiff, Brad Sherman face angry crowd at debate in Burbank

BURBANK — Congressmen Adam Schiff and Brad Sherman, two of the Los Angeles area’s leading critics of President Trump, faced angry audience members as well as their election opponents at a candidates debate Wednesday night.

The two Democrats were interrupted often by shouts from a crowd of about 100 in the Burbank City Council chamber before organizers from the League of Women Voters of Glendale/Burbank stopped the debate early.

Schiff, D-Burbank, stayed cool while absorbing heckling from the crowd as well as criticism from Johnny Nalbandian, the Republican trying to unseat him in California’s 28th House District. Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, frequently asked for extra time to talk and grew defensive when he was drowned out by members of the public and blasted by Mark Reed, his Republican challenger in the 30th District.

“It’s a sad commentary on the times,” Schiff said of the scene as he chatted afterward with forum moderator Rita Zwern, a League of Women Voters member.

Zwern said she has moderated about 15 such forums and this was the first that degenerated like this.

The scene played out on a day filled with news reports of explosive devices being mailed to former President Obama, former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and other political and media figures.

At least one member of the audience was escorted out during the debate, which was to be shown on cable TV and YouTube.

That man, Boris Kushnir, an Encino resident, said outside that Sherman and Schiff are “skunks” and that he didn’t regret calling out “lies” by the two San Fernando Valley representatives.

Kushnir, who lives in Sherman’s district, said he plans to vote for Reed on Nov. 6.

Reed said he wasn’t bothered by the audience outbursts, saying they reflected the frustration of Sherman’s and Schiff’s constituents.

Zwern granted extra time to talk to candidates whose answers to questions were interrupted, which only further riled some people in the crowd. Zwern said the outbursts seemed to come mostly from people opposed to the two Democrats.

Although Zwern said it was the Burbank Police Department that asked the League of Women Voters to stop the forum short of it scheduled time, Sgt. Fletcher Stone said that was the organizers’ decision alone.

Stone, who watched the crowd from near the front of the chamber after being called to the scene by concerned organizers, said worry about the safety of the event was enhanced by the reports earlier in the day of suspicious packages being mailed to political figures and by the prominence of Schiff and Sherman.

Schiff is the ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee dealing with an investigation of possible Russian interference in the 2016 president election. Sherman was one of the first members of Congress to introduce articles of impeachment against Trump.

Stone said he never thought the forum would actually become violent.

In between flareups, the candidates debated issues including election security, voting rights, health care, climate change, immigration and the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It was the only scheduled forum this year involving Sherman or Schiff, both of whom are expected to win re-election in districts where Democrats outnumber Republicans among registered voters.

Reed attacked Sherman for skipping other forums to which he was invited, and repeated criticisms of how Sherman runs his House office. Sherman said Reed “makes things up.”

Nalbandian called the Russia investigation a waste of $30 million and said Schiff ignores problems in his district.