President Trump called on Democratic Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California to resign Friday for reading aloud a “fraudulent” version of the president’s phone conversation with the president of Ukraine.
“Rep. Adam Schiff fraudulently read to Congress, with millions of people watching, a version of my conversation with the President of Ukraine that doesn’t exist,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “He was supposedly reading the exact transcribed version of the call, but he completely changed the words to make it sound horrible, [and] me sound guilty.”
In all caps, the president tweeted that Mr. Schiff, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, “was desperate and he got caught.”
“Adam Schiff therefore lied to Congress and attempted to defraud the American Public,” the president wrote. “He has been doing this for two years. I am calling for him to immediately resign from Congress based on this fraud!”
Mr. Schiff acknowledged Thursday that he made up parts of the Ukraine phone call transcript when he delivered his opening statement at a high-profile, televised hearing regarding a whistleblower’s complaint against Mr. Trump. The lawmaker said his reading was “part in parody” — but made the admission only after Rep. Mike Turner, Ohio Republican, called him out.
In his opening statement, Mr. Schiff said Mr. Trump asked Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky for fabricated dirt on former Vice President Joseph R. Biden. Rather than read excerpts from the actual phone conversation, Mr. Schiff read a summary that amounted to his own fabricated interpretation of the call.
SEE ALSO: Adam Schiff called out for fabricating Ukraine call transcript in opening remarks
The unnamed whistleblower, reportedly a CIA agent, said the July 25 phone conversation shows that Mr. Trump pressured Ukraine’s president to start an investigation of Mr. Biden and his son, Hunter, who held a lucrative post with a Ukrainian energy company. Democrats contend Mr. Trump was threatening to withhold U.S. military aid to Ukraine; Mr. Trump has denied wrongdoing, saying it was an “innocent” call.
The president also criticized CNN Friday for a “dishonest” report about his tweets against Mr. Schiff.
“To show you how dishonest the LameStream Media is, I used the word Liddle’, not Liddle, in discribing Corrupt Congressman Liddle’ Adam Schiff,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “Low ratings @CNN purposely took the hyphen out and said I spelled the word little wrong. A small but never ending situation with CNN!”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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