Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Thursday tore into President Trump for his repeated claim that a spy surveilled his campaign for political purposes.
Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, rattled off a series of false claims Trump has made as president. He told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the latest claim about surveillance is not “spygate,” as the president has dubbed it, but rather “liegate.”
“The president said that there was wiretapping at Trump Tower. That was false. He said there was an unmasking conspiracy. That was false. He said that there [were] political spies embedded in his campaign. That is false,” Schiff said.
{mosads}
“This isn’t spygate, but it is a form of liegate,” he added.
He noted the president’s tendency to share information without providing specific sources.
“Whenever you hear that preface — ‘people are saying’ or ‘we’ve been told’ — the American people should know by now that what follows is going to be another false statement,” Schiff said.
Schiff’s comments come after Trump has spent several days in a row claiming, without evidence, that an FBI informant was embedded in his campaign for political reasons.
Trump has branded his claim “spygate,” and said it could prove a bigger political scandal than Watergate.
The Department of Justice has expanded an internal probe to investigate allegations of bias at the FBI against Trump and his campaign.
Intelligence officials will brief top Republican lawmakers on Thursday about the use of a confidential informant in the early months of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign.
Schiff said he does not believe the meeting is appropriate, particularly because the White House was involved in organizing it.
Schiff has been a fierce critic of the president. Trump, in return, has lashed out at Schiff on occasion, calling him “Sleazy Adam Schiff” and “Little Adam Schiff.”