President Trump believes a House censure, like the one introduced by the House Freedom Caucus, is not enough to punish House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. The California Democrat opened a hearing with Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire last week by embellishing the transcript of the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky. Following backlash from Republicans on the panel, Schiff would later explain that it was a "parody."
Well Trump wasn't laughing. And on Monday he suggested that Schiff's behavior was egregious that it amounts to treason and he should be arrested.
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. It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019
The whistleblower complaint charged Trump with asking Ukraine to interfere in U.S. elections and investigate his political rival Joe Biden. When both documents were released, it showed no evidence of quid pro quo. Although it did appear that Trump did ask Zelensky to look into Biden's and his son Hunter's Ukrainian scandal. Hunter reportedly sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company and got millions of dollars for it.
On Sunday the president said he deserves to meet the whistleblower, who admitted in the complaint that he or she was not a "direct witness" to Trump's phone call with Zelensky.
Still, Democrats used the documents to launch an official impeachment inquiry into Trump.
