President Donald Trump spent his Saturday evening watching Fox News and rage-tweeting and actually misquoted a Fox anchor to launch a desperate attack on Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
The long-awaited Democratic rebuttal memo in response to the GOP memo written by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) was released earlier in the day providing context that hurts Republican claims that the FBI and Justice Department inappropriately obtained a FISA warrant to conduct surveillance on Trump campaign officials.
Not only did the FBI have a policy against unmasking sources, which prevented them from naming 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and the DNC in the FISA application although the FBI did tell the court that the information could be politically motivated, the Bureau had already been investigating Carter Page for being a Russian agent and did not use the Steele dossier to originally justify a warrant.
Also, some of the information in the dossier has been verified, but the details were redacted.
Of course, Trump threw a temper tantrum about the memo on Twitter as he watched Fox News report on it.
The Democrat memo response on government surveillance abuses is a total political and legal BUST. Just confirms all of the terrible things that were done. SO ILLEGAL!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2018
Dem Memo: FBI did not disclose who the clients were – the Clinton Campaign and the DNC. Wow!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2018
“Russians had no compromising information on Donald Trump” @FoxNews Of course not, because there is none, and never was. This whole Witch Hunt is an illegal disgrace…and Obama did nothing about Russia!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2018
But then Trump did something even more outrageous. He misquoted a Fox anchor to smear Schiff by accusing him of “omitting and distorting key facts.”
“Congressman Schiff omitted and distorted key facts” @FoxNews So, what else is new. He is a total phony!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2018
This is what the Fox anchor actually said:
“Congressman Schiff, he argues the Republican memo omitted and distorted key facts — it was initially meant to be mislead the public. And this Democratic memo was supposed to be the rebuttal that was meant to show what was left out. Was the Democratic memo released now, will it be seen as a success? Did they get their point across?”
And here’s the video featuring the full quote via YouTube.
In fact, the words Fox News referenced are also posted on Schiff’s Twitter account.
Some time ago, Republicans on our committee released a declassified memo that omitted and distorted key facts in order to mislead the public and impugn the integrity of the FBI.
We can now tell you what they left out: https://t.co/jeVCVTBUBZ
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 24, 2018
It’s pretty damn clear that Trump misquoted Fox and slandered Schiff in the process. The question is did he do it on purpose? If so, it’s despicable. And even if it was an accident, Trump owes Fox News and Adam Schiff a public apology and needs to correct the record.
In response, Schiff called Trump out for being wrong about the Democratic memo and mocked him for his “playground” name-calling.
Wrong again, Mr. President. It confirms the FBI acted appropriately and that Russian agents approached two of your advisors, and informed your campaign that Russia was prepared to help you by disseminating stolen Clinton emails. https://t.co/G128SNicdn
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 24, 2018
Wait a minute, Mr. President. Am I a phony, or sleazy, a monster or little? Surely you know the key to a good playground nickname is consistency. I thought you were supposed to be good at this. https://t.co/v44q2CTFxX
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 25, 2018
Trump really messed up this time. He needs to admit it and make it right. But, as usual, he’s way too petty and narcissistic to admit that he made an error.
Featured Image: YouTube screenshot.
