President Donald Trump called for the arrest of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) after accusing the lawmaker of committing treason in a Monday morning tweet.
“Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people,” wrote Trump. “It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?”
Trump’s comments, which were published shortly after the president suggested America will spiral into a “Civil War like” state if he is impeached, were in response to Schiff giving a “parody” account of Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky while speaking on the House floor on Thursday. Included in Schiff’s hyperbolic interruption of the president’s July 25 call, which can be viewed in the video below, was a comment that Trump asked Zelensky “to make up dirt on my political opponent.”
The president did
Trump was swiftly and widely condemned by pundits and journalists for calling to arrest Schiff, with some accusing him of upping his violent rhetoric as a treason conviction can result in the death penalty; a particularly relevant point, due to the president recently comparing the whistleblower complaint to “treason” and suggesting the so-called “spies” behind it be taken care of like America did “in the old days when we were smart.”
Check out a few of the media reactions to Trump’s latest attack on Schiff below:
Watch Schiff’s comments referenced in the Trump tweet above, via CSPAN.
[featured image via Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images]