President Trump criticized “Shifty” Adam Schiff (D., Calif) on Twitter Monday for releasing “doctored transcripts” of testimonies from the impeachment inquiry, and called for the House Intelligence chairman to testify “as to why he MADE UP a statement” over Trump’s July 25th call with Ukraine.
Shifty Adam Schiff will only release doctored transcripts. We haven’t even seen the documents and are restricted from (get this) having a lawyer. Republicans should put out their own transcripts! Schiff must testify as to why he MADE UP a statement from me, and read it to all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2019
The president has faced accusations that the White House transcript of his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was edited to downplay his wrongdoing. On October 29, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman — the National Security Council’s top Ukrainian expert — testified that key words and phrases were omitted from the transcript of the call. Two days later, senior White House official Tim Morrison dismissed the claim.
Trump’s comments come as public hearings on impeachment are scheduled to begin this Wednesday. Over the weekend, Schiff rejected a Republican request for witnesses that included Hunter Biden, Devon Archer, former Fusion-GPS contractor Nellie Ohr, former DNC operative Alexandra Chalupa, and the alleged whistleblower.
“The whistleblower’s testimony is therefore redundant and unnecessary. In light of the President’s threats, the individual’s appearance before us would only place their personal safety at grave risk,” Schiff wrote in a letter to Representative Devin Nunes (R., Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Prior to Schiff’s response, Nunes said that Republicans expect Schiff “to call each of the witnesses listed above to ensure that the Democrats’ ‘impeachment inquiry’ treats the President with fairness, as promised by Speaker Pelosi.”
On Sunday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy responded by calling the inquiry a “calculated coup, and it is being orchestrated by Adam Schiff.”
“This has been orchestrated, and if it goes out longer, we will find the lies, we will find out how they calculated the truth, we’ll find more about the whistleblower’s attorney and others,” McCarthy said on Fox News.
Trump has been a vocal critic of Schiff’s September 26 description of Trump’s call, in which the House Intelligence chairman claimed the “essence” of the call with Ukrainian Zelensky “reads like a classic organized crime shakedown,” and said that the president basically asked Zelensky to “make up dirt on my political opponent.”
In September, Trump suggested Schiff should be charged with treason over the statement.