US President Donald Trump has gone on Twitter to urge the country’s lawmakers to vote for censuring House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who earlier provided his own interpretation of this summer’s phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump expressed hope that “all House Republicans, and honest House Democrats, will vote to CENSURE Rep. Adam Schiff tomorrow for his brazen and unlawful act of fabricating (making up) a totally phony conversation with the Ukraine President and U.S. President, me”.
Hope all House Republicans, and honest House Democrats, will vote to CENSURE Rep. Adam Schiff tomorrow for his brazen and unlawful act of fabricating (making up) a totally phony conversation with the Ukraine President and U.S. President, me. Most have never seen such a thing!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2019
The tweet followed a move by Republican Andy Biggs to introduce a resolution which specifically accuses Schiff of "a false retelling of the conversation between President Trump and President Zelensky”.
“These actions of Chairman Schiff misled the American people, bring disrepute upon the House of Representatives, and make a mockery of the impeachment process,” the resolution asserts.
In previous series of tweets, Trump suggested that Schiff should be arrested for treason and resign from Congress office over his modifying the transcript of the Trump-Zelensky call.
The US President accused Schiff of making a “totally fraudulent statement to the House and public”.
....fraudulently and illegally inserted his made up & twisted words into my call with the Ukrainian President to make it look like I did something very wrong. He then boldly read those words to Congress and millions of people, defaming & libeling me. He must resign from Congress!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 28, 2019
The House Intelligence Committee Chairman, for his part, insisted that his summary of the Trump-Zelensky call “was meant to be, at least part, in parody”.
“Of course, the president never said, ‘If you don’t understand me I’m going to say it seven more times,’ my point is, that’s the message that the Ukraine president was receiving in not so many words,” Schiff said.
US President Rejects Impeachment Probe as ‘Coup’
Trump’s call with Zelensky was followed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing on 24 September an impeachment inquiry against the US President who is accused by Democrats of pressuring Zelensky to investigate former US Vice President and 2020 Democratic hopeful Joe Biden.
During the call, the transcript of which was released by the White House, Trump is charged with threatening to withhold financial aid to Ukraine and soliciting a foreign "quid pro quo" meddling to probe the business dealings of Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine.
Trump rejected the impeachment proceedings as a “hoax”, a “political witch hunt” and a “coup”, which he claimed aims “to take away the power of the people” as well as […] their God-given rights as a citizen of the United States of America”.
