Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, is fundraising off of the Russia investigation — claiming phantom attacks by Breitbart News.
Last week, he promoted a tweet from his personal twitter account, saying that Trump and “his friends at Breitbart are going after me,” along with a link to a fundraising website:
“Chip in to support Adam,” the website says. “As Adam faces attacks from the far-right, help him keep fighting for our country and progressive values in Congress this year and beyond.”
Schiff did not include what Breitbart “attacks” he was referencing. The day before he tweeted, January 31, Breitbart News published a story detailing his efforts to block the House Intelligence Committee’s memo on FISA abuse.
The report was not an “attack”; it was, rather, about Schiff’s tweet late last Wednesday claiming that Republicans made changes to the memo without the committee’s permission and, therefore, it had to be withdrawn.
Breitbart News also reported that day on Democratic attacks on House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) ramping up ahead of the memo’s release. It pointed out that Schiff made a claim about Nunes on CNN earlier in the week that a transcript later showed to be untrue.
Schiff has been one of the most vocal Democratic voices pushing the narrative that Trump colluded with Russia. During a hearing last March, he cited as evidence information from a dossier that then-FBI Director James Comey called “salacious and unverified.”
In addition to Schiff’s fundraising tweet, there has been a flurry of emails sent out by Democratic groups during the past week, indicating they believe it is a profitable issue for them.
Ironically, some of them claim Trump is acting selfishly by releasing the memo, while Democrats are the ones fundraising off of it.
“BREAKING: TRUMP RELEASES MEMO AGAINST FBI WARNING,” a February 2 DCCC email said. “5O,OOO SIGNATURES NEEDED BY MIDNIGHT: Condemn Trump for releasing the Nunes memo NOW.”
“The FBI, the Department Of Justice, and Democrats agree: this memo CHERRY-PICKS evidence, TWISTS the truth, and MISUSES intelligence. Even worse? The memo was CLASSIFIED. That means Trump is risking the lives of American intelligence experts — FOR HIS OWN POLITICAL GAIN.”
(The email does not include that Democrats are pushing to release their own classified memo that is a response to the House Intelligence Committee memo).
On February 3, the DCCC sent another email under Nancy Pelosi’s name asking for donations.
“I’m absolutely furious — and I’m asking for $1 to defeat Trump’s Republicans in Congress. What President Trump just did is a disgrace. He released a partisan, dangerous, and false memo about the Russian investigation. He threatened our safety. He abused his power to further a far-right political agenda.”
Another group, Red to Blue California, sent out an email asking for donations to beat Nunes. “Nunes’ faulty memo is a national embarrassment meant to lay the groundwork for Trump to gut the Mueller investigation. Nunes isn’t just a right-wing Republican fanatic — he’s jeopardizing our national security,” it read.
On Monday, the DCCC sent a survey from “Nancy Pelosi” asking how recipients felt about Republicans’ handling of the Russia investigation. “To distract Americans from the UGLY TRUTH about Trump and the Russia investigation, they released a MISLEADING, HYPER-PARTISAN memo…and some of its claims are BLATANTLY FALSE!” it said.
Schiff’s tweet — which is still on Twitter but no longer in his feed — appears to be a “promoted tweet” — one that was paid for to be promoted.
Per Twitter:
It’s possible that a user will see a Promoted Tweet that does not appear on the advertiser’s profile page. Advertisers have the option to send highly targeted and relevant Promoted Tweets to a specific audience only, without that Tweet being sent to all followers. However, any Promoted Tweet a user might see is still a part of Twitter, and can generally be found by searching for the Tweet.
Incidentally, President Trump attacked Schiff in a tweet on Monday, calling him “Little Adam Schiff”:
Schiff responded on his congressional account — suggesting the president focus on things other than the Russia investigation:
Schiff then promptly began fundraising off of the president’s tweet:
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.