‘Impeachment is a politically polarizing event and Schiff thinks it’s just a big joke…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., kicked off Democrats’ historically momentous impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump by opening with an abject lie, which he later claimed was a “parody.”
Schiff’s opening statement during a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee with acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire claimed to be a paraphrasing of the transcript released by the White House of a July call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The call became the basis of a whistleblower complaint that Democrats used to formally launch their long sought impeachment hearings against Trump.
However, doubts already have arisen over the latest effort, including doubts about the accuracy of the information, questions about potential bias from the whistleblower and criticisms of Democrats’ double-standard for ignoring their own egregious abuses of power while seeking to fault Trump for investigating them.
Schiff—who squandered his credibility during the prior Mueller investigation into now-debunked claims of Russian collusion by declaring he had nonexistent evidence of impeachable offenses—once again took to embellishing the facts with his dramatized interpretation of the phone call.
In opening statement, Rep. Schiff makes up dialogue to represent what Trump said to Zelensky. A rough transcript of the president’s words exists, and is available, but Schiff’s version is more dramatic. pic.twitter.com/f7gS4KIPge
— Byron York (@ByronYork) September 26, 2019
Political watchers—predominately those in the conservative media—were quick to condemn the inappropriateness of his fabricated account.
I can’t believe what I’m watching right now!
When confronted about making up a transcript, Adam Schiff countered “it was meant to be parody.”
This is a hearing before the UNITED STATES CONGRESS, and Schiff uses parody as a mechanism to completely misconstrue @realDonaldTrump?!
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) September 26, 2019
Several observed that Schiff’s need to make up his own account underscored the fact that the Democrats—after fully committing to impeachment without reading the actual transcript or whistleblower complaint—had overplayed their hand and fallen short of what they had promised.
If the conversation were as damning as Schiff et al would like, he would have simply read directly from it, instead of making up dialogue. Probably not surprising in light of the extravagant collusion claims he made for 2 years. https://t.co/UfefK3kQYj
— Brit Hume (@brithume) September 26, 2019
The controversy came as left-leaning CNN also faced criticism for deceptively editing roughly 500 words from the transcript to deceive viewers into thinking Trump had asked Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden as a “favor.”
In the actual context, Trump was asking that Zelenskiy turn over a server from the Democratic National Committee that is at the core of an investigation into the Russia collusion hoax currently under investigation by the Justice Department.
If the call transcript was as damning as they say it is, they would simply quote it.
They can’t. Instead, they resort to deceptive editing and omitting 500+ words, or simply reciting “parody.” https://t.co/mLrJPem3xY
— Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) September 26, 2019
Adding insult to injury, however, was Schiff’s subsequent effort to excuse the fabrication by referring to it as a parody.
Several noted that it was unbefitting of the seriousness of the occasion, while also telling of the partisan House Democrats’ mindset following months of thwarted attempts to ensnare Trump.
Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff (CA) admits that his blatant fabrication of quotes from Trump’s Ukraine call was “wrong” after he got called out
Schiff claims it was a “parody”
Impeachment is a politically polarizing event and Schiff thinks it’s just a big joke
Absolutely unreal pic.twitter.com/YqcQscCKYt
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 26, 2019