Trump echoes impeachment team in targeting Schiff

President Trump fired off a series of early morning tweets on Sunday assailing House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the lead impeachment manager, echoing the president’s defense team in the Senate trial.

“The Impeachment Hoax is a massive election interference the likes of which has never been seen before. In just two hours the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats have seen their phony case absolutely shredded,” Trump said in his first tweet, referring to his legal team’s opening arguments on Saturday.

“Shifty is now exposed for illegally making up my phone call, & more!” Trump added, an apparent reference to Schiff mischaracterizing the president’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which is central to the Democrats’ impeachment effort. Schiff has said his comments were intended as “parody,” but Trump has called for the California Democrat to be prosecuted for treason.

The Impeachment Hoax is a massive election interference the likes of which has never been seen before. In just two hours the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats have seen their phony case absolutely shredded. Shifty is now exposed for illegally making up my phone call, & more!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2020

In a follow-up tweet, Trump referred to Schiff as a “CORRUPT POLITICIAN” and said he has “not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!”

Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2020

Trump’s defense team repeatedly attacked Schiff’s credibility this weekend, including invoking the “parody” call.

“That’s fake,” deputy White House counsel Michael Purpura said of Schiff’s remarks. “That’s not the real call. That’s not the evidence here.”

“They don’t contest the basic architecture of this scheme,” Schiff told reporters Saturday. “They do not contest that the president solicited a foreign nation to interfere in our election, to help him cheat.”