President Donald Trump suggested Monday morning that House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff be arrested for treason.
“Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people. It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?” Trump tweeted.
Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people. It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019
Trump’s suggestion of Schiff’s treason follows several tweets on Friday in which he called for an investigation of Schiff and for his resignation.
“Rep. Adam Schiff totally made up my conversation with Ukraine President and read it to Congress and Millions. He must resign and be investigated. He has been doing this for two years. He is a sick man!” Trump tweeted on Friday morning.
Rep. Adam Schiff totally made up my conversation with Ukraine President and read it to Congress and Millions. He must resign and be investigated. He has been doing this for two years. He is a sick man!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2019
Trump’s tweets reference Schiff’s opening remarks during a Thursday hearing in which he read what was supposed to be the transcript of the July 25 call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“We’ve been very good to your country, very good,” Schiff said at the time, supposedly reading Trump’s portion of the call. “No other country has done as much as we have, but you know what? I don’t see much reciprocity here. I hear what you want, I have a favor I want from you, though, and I’m gonna say this only seven times, so you better listen good. I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent, understand, lots of it.”
To open a very serious hearing, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) delivers a completely made-up account of President Trump’s conversation with the Ukrainian President.
Very normal and professional.
He later claimed it was “parody.” pic.twitter.com/78iETQoUdU
— BlazeTV (@BlazeTV) September 26, 2019
Schiff later claimed that he was performing a parody.
Republican Rep. Andy Biggs introduced a House resolution to censure Schiff over his antics. According to Biggs, Schiff “read a statement that was blatantly false, had no corresponding evidence, nor relationship to the actual transcript of President Trump’s conversation.”
Today, I introduced a motion to condemn and censure House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. Chairman Schiff’s blatantly false retelling of @POTUS @realDonaldTrump’s conversation with Ukrainian President Zelensky was inexcusable. pic.twitter.com/yhwQuBvp3G
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) September 27, 2019
“What the chairman did is he read something that was made-up, totally false, and later had to excuse it by saying it was a parody,” Biggs added.
The call between Trump and Zelensky has been the center of a media firestorm after a whistleblower complaint alleged the call entailed Trump pressuring Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, as a means of undermining his political opponent.
The White House released the transcript of the call on Sept. 25, which showed that Trump asked Zelensky to “look into” the matter of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden – after Trump had initially asked Zelensky to look into another matter.
The whistleblower complaint, released Sept. 26, indicated that the complainant had no first-hand knowledge of the call, but instead made the report on second-hand information.
Trump also addressed the complaint on Monday morning, tweeting, “The Fake Whistleblower complaint is not holding up. It is mostly about the call to the Ukrainian President which, in the name of transparency, I immediately released to Congress & the public. The Whistleblower knew almost nothing, its 2ND HAND description of the call is a fraud!”
The Fake Whistleblower complaint is not holding up. It is mostly about the call to the Ukrainian President which, in the name of transparency, I immediately released to Congress & the public. The Whistleblower knew almost nothing, its 2ND HAND description of the call is a fraud!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading the charge of an impeachment inquiry against Trump, after previously ruling it out and resisting her colleagues’ calls, citing his call with Zelensky as the facts needed to move forward with the motion.