House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) performed an entirely made-up conversation between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his opening statement at a committee hearing Thursday morning.
The White House released a transcript of a phone call between Trump and Zelensky on Wednesday, but Schiff made up and fabricated his own own transcript that he read at the hearing, which sought to create a quid pro quo that Democrats have accused the president of making.
“This is the essence of what the president communicates,” Schiff began.
“We’ve been very good to your country. Very good. No other country has done as much as we have. But you know what? I don’t see much reciprocity here. I hear what you want. I have a favor I want from YOU though. And I’m going to say this only seven times so you better listen good,” Schiff read from his fabricated conversation.
Top Female Tennis Player Takes on No. 671 Man in ‘Battle of the Sexes’ – It Wasn’t Even Close
‘America first’: Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray launches House bid
Trump Signals Military Hit First Target Inside Venezuela After Finding Drug Facility: ‘We Knocked That Out’
China surrounds Taiwan with warships, fighter jets in largest military drills on record
Missing 19-year-old Camila Mendoza Olmos believed to be ‘in imminent danger,’ Texas sheriff says
Manhunts across America in 2025: Five cases that left cities, campuses and towns on edge
5 pivotal 2026 Senate races will determine whether Republicans maintain governing trifecta under Trump
FBI Foils New Year’s Eve Terror Plot by ‘Pro-Palestinian’ Group in California: Officials
Trump stress-tests Thune’s Senate majority with record-breaking year
Health insurers drift leftward in campaign donations even as they seek to sway GOP
GOP Rep to Force Vote on Expelling Ilhan Omar from Congress
DC pipe bomb suspect says someone needed to ‘speak up’ about stolen election claims
Marjorie Taylor Greene criticizes Trump’s meetings with Zelenskyy, Netanyahu: ‘Can we just do America’
Tim Walz pushes back on Minnesota fraud allegations following viral daycare video
Ilhan Omar’s Somaliland stance slammed as Minnesota fraud scandal deepens
“I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent, understand? Lots of it,” he continued.
“On this and on that. I’m gonna put you in touch with people and not just any people,” he continued, affecting an accent meant to resemble Trump’s. “I’m going to put you with the attorney general of the United States, my attorney general Bill Barr. He’s got the whole weight of the American law enforcement behind him.”
“And I’m gonna put you in touch with Rudy, you’re gonna love him, trust me,” Schiff said, still avoiding any real quotations from the transcript. “You know what I’m asking, so I’m only going to say this a few more times, in a few more ways. And by the way don’t call me again. I’ll call you when you’ve done what I’ve asked.”
Schiff said of his made-up conversation, “This is in sum and character what the president was trying to communicate.”
Republican lawmakers slammed Schiff for making up the conversation entirely, instead of going off the transcript of what was actually said between Trump and Zelensky.
Top Female Tennis Player Takes on No. 671 Man in ‘Battle of the Sexes’ – It Wasn’t Even Close
‘America first’: Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray launches House bid
Trump Signals Military Hit First Target Inside Venezuela After Finding Drug Facility: ‘We Knocked That Out’
China surrounds Taiwan with warships, fighter jets in largest military drills on record
Missing 19-year-old Camila Mendoza Olmos believed to be ‘in imminent danger,’ Texas sheriff says
Manhunts across America in 2025: Five cases that left cities, campuses and towns on edge
5 pivotal 2026 Senate races will determine whether Republicans maintain governing trifecta under Trump
FBI Foils New Year’s Eve Terror Plot by ‘Pro-Palestinian’ Group in California: Officials
Trump stress-tests Thune’s Senate majority with record-breaking year
Health insurers drift leftward in campaign donations even as they seek to sway GOP
GOP Rep to Force Vote on Expelling Ilhan Omar from Congress
DC pipe bomb suspect says someone needed to ‘speak up’ about stolen election claims
Marjorie Taylor Greene criticizes Trump’s meetings with Zelenskyy, Netanyahu: ‘Can we just do America’
Tim Walz pushes back on Minnesota fraud allegations following viral daycare video
Ilhan Omar’s Somaliland stance slammed as Minnesota fraud scandal deepens
Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) called the statement “fiction”:
While the chairman was speaking, I actually had someone text me, ‘Is he just making this up?’ And yes, yes he was. Because sometimes fiction is better than the actual words or the text. But luckily the American people are smart. They have the transcript, they’ve read the conversation, they know when someone is just making it up.
After Turner’s scolding, Schiff said his “summary of the president’s call was at least meant to be in part parody.”
He added, “The fact that that’s not clear is a separate problem in and of itself. Of course the president never said, “If you didn’t understand me, I’m going to say it seven more times.’ My point is, that’s the message the Ukrainian president was receiving in not so many words.”
Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) accused Schiff of being intentionally misleading.
“I think it’s a shame that we started off this hearing with fictional remarks — the implication of a conversation that took place between a president and foreign leader, putting words into it that didn’t exist, they’re not in the transcript. And I would contend that they were intentionally not clear,” he said.
Top Female Tennis Player Takes on No. 671 Man in ‘Battle of the Sexes’ – It Wasn’t Even Close
‘America first’: Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray launches House bid
Trump Signals Military Hit First Target Inside Venezuela After Finding Drug Facility: ‘We Knocked That Out’
China surrounds Taiwan with warships, fighter jets in largest military drills on record
Missing 19-year-old Camila Mendoza Olmos believed to be ‘in imminent danger,’ Texas sheriff says
Manhunts across America in 2025: Five cases that left cities, campuses and towns on edge
5 pivotal 2026 Senate races will determine whether Republicans maintain governing trifecta under Trump
FBI Foils New Year’s Eve Terror Plot by ‘Pro-Palestinian’ Group in California: Officials
Trump stress-tests Thune’s Senate majority with record-breaking year
Health insurers drift leftward in campaign donations even as they seek to sway GOP
GOP Rep to Force Vote on Expelling Ilhan Omar from Congress
DC pipe bomb suspect says someone needed to ‘speak up’ about stolen election claims
Marjorie Taylor Greene criticizes Trump’s meetings with Zelenskyy, Netanyahu: ‘Can we just do America’
Tim Walz pushes back on Minnesota fraud allegations following viral daycare video
Ilhan Omar’s Somaliland stance slammed as Minnesota fraud scandal deepens
“The chairman described it as parody, and I don’t think this is the time or place for parody when we are trying to seek facts,” he added.
“And unfortunately today, many innocent Americans are going to turn on their TV and the media’s only going to show that section of what the chairman had to say, but I’m also glad to know that many Americans have seen this movie too many times and are tired of it.”
Story cited here.
