President Donald Trump ridiculed Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) on Thursday after the House Intelligence Committee chairman employed a fantasy narrative during a congressional hearing with the acting director of national intelligence.
“Adam Schiff has zero credibility,” he wrote on Twitter. “Another fantasy to hurt the Republican Party!”
The president commented on the hearing after leaving New York City to return to the White House in Washington, DC, after spending several days attending meetings with world leaders during the United Nations General Assembly.
Trump appeared to be in a good mood.
Earlier in the day, he hosted a fundraising reception with donors, calling the Democrats’ rush to impeachment “the greatest thing that has ever happened to the Republican Party,” according to an attendee speaking to the Washington Post. Trump waved a transcript of the call with the Ukranian president as the group shouted “four more years.”
“If you really want their heads to explode, you should chant eight more years,” he said. They did.
House Democrats led by Schiff and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced their intention to impeach the president based on reports of a whistleblower highlighting a deeply troubling conversation with the Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The White House released a transcript of the conversation, which included Trump’s request that the Ukrainians investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, but there was no evidence of a “quid pro quo” nature.
But Schiff tried to colorize the conversation in a hearing with Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire to sound like a mafia movie, emphasizing what he believed was a direct threat to the Ukrainian president.
“This is in sum and character what the president was trying to communicate,” Schiff insisted, employing rhetoric that was not included in the transcript of the conversation.
Trump further mocked Schiff on Twitter.
“Liddle’ Adam Schiff, who has worked unsuccessfully for 3 years to hurt the Republican Party and President, has just said that the Whistleblower, even though he or she only had second-hand information, ‘is credible,’” Trump wrote. “How can that be with zero info and a known bias. Democrat Scam!”
Schiff’s performance also drew ridicule from his Republican colleagues in the House.
“Sometimes fiction is better than the actual words or the text,” said Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH). “But luckily the American people are smart.”
Trump has eyed Schiff in the past as a partisan but smart rival in Washington, DC.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Trump accused “little” Schiff of being incredibly vicious in public statements.
“When you see what happened with the viciousness, and when you see little Adam Schiff go out and lie and lie and stand at the mic — smart guy, by the way — stand at the mic and act like he’s so serious. And then he goes into a room with Nadler, and they must laugh their asses off,” Trump said.
But the president appeared pleased by the results of the hearing after returning to the White House.
After shaking hands of supporters on one side of the sidewalk, he pumped his fist and entered the White House without speaking to reporters.