‘Schiff is a lying mess!’: President Trump slams the top Democrat again amid claims two of the whistleblowers worked for his office
- The president called Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff a ‘lying mess!’ Saturday
- In the tweet, he quoted a Fox & Friends headline that reads: ‘Schiff aids worked with Whistleblower’
- On Wednesday Trump said the House Intelligence chair should be ‘impeached for Fraud!’ and on Monday Trump said Schiff and Pelosi should be investigated
- The Constitution grants the House sole power of impeachment of the president
- Schiff is leading part of an impeachment inquiry into Trump, focusing on a whistle-blower’s claim Trump abused his office
President Donald Trump has launched yet another attack on Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff as tension builds over the impeachment inquiry into Trump’s phone call with Ukraine.
‘Schiff is a lying mess!’ the president wrote on Twitter Saturday after quoting a Fox & Friends headline that reads: ‘Schiff aids worked with Whistleblower’.
This comes just days after Trump wrote that Schiff should be ‘impeached’ – even though the Constitution does not allow impeachment of House members.
The president also made his demand just hours after the White House counsel sent a letter to Congress Wednesday blasting a House impeachment inquiry of Trump, and saying the president and the administration ‘cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry.’
The president called Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff a ‘lying mess!’ Saturday
Schiff is leading part of an impeachment inquiry into Trump, focusing on a whistle-blower’s claim Trump abused his office
In another retweet Wednesday, Trump blasted: ‘Adam Schiff is a disgrace to our Country!’
The Constitution does provide for impeachment of presidents. The House has the power of impeachment, and the Senate determines the outcome.
Trump retweeted Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee – a panel that in the past has had a formal role in impeachment. Collins flagged a paragraph from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone’s Tuesday letter, which included a Washington Post fact check taking Schiff to task for an answer he gave previously on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe.’
Schiff got asked if he had heard from the whistle-blower, and responded: ‘We have not spoken directly with the whistle-blower.’
However, the Washington Post later reported that there had in fact been contact after the whistle-blower approached a staff member for Schiff’s committee before filing an official report in August.
Rep. Collins shared part of the White House letter, and said it was why he was joining a resolution to censure Schiff.
‘He should be Impeached for Fraud!’ wrote Trump in his retweet.
On Monday, Trump tore into Schiff and Pelosi for ‘fraud.’
Trump called for the impeachment of Rep. Adam Schiff and said Schiff and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should be ‘investigated.’ Although the House has the power to impeach the president, House members may be expelled only by a vote of their own members
‘She’s as guilty as he is because she knew all of that,’ Trump said of the Speaker.
‘She knew everything about it and she didn’t do anything about it. And I’ll tell you what, they should really be looked at very strongly, because what they did is unthinkable,’ said Trump. ‘What they did to this country is unthinkable,’ Trump said.
Unfortunately for Trump, the Constitution provides no such mechanism to impeach a House member.
Article I on the Constitution gives the House of Representatives ‘the sole Power of Impeachment,’ and the document also leaves it to the House to determine its own rules.
The House may expel one of its own members with a two-thirds vote.