October 3, 2019

Pelosi wants "the American people to know what that phone call was about," which is, I think she's saying here, all Adam Schiff was doing with his ridiculous paraphrase.


Here's the Schiff paraphrase that Pelosi won't disown:

Schiff's insidious satirical paraphrase was concocted out of Trump's Ukraine phone call: "The other thing, there's a lot of talk about Biden's son, Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me."

You'd think Pelosi would try harder to preserve her credibility, but she's locked into the narrative that her people are the high-minded upholders of morality and nothing they do is for political purposes. She cannot distance herself from Schiff. She's sticking to the story that their side is all good, and Trump finds leverage. From his remarks yesterday:
And then, Schiff went up and he got — as the chairman of the committee, he got up and related a call that didn’t take place. He made up the language. Hard to believe. Nobody has ever seen this. I think he had some kind of a mental breakdown. But he went up to the microphone and he read a statement from the President of the United States as if I were on the call, because what happened is, when he looked at the sheet — which was an exact transcript of my call, done by very talented people that do this — exact, word for word — he said, “Wow, he didn’t do anything wrong.” So he made it up. He went up to a microphone, and, in front of the American people and in Congress, he went out and he gave a whole presentation of words that the President of the United States never said. It has to be a criminal act. It has to be. And he should resign. And some people even say it was treason. But it was a very sad thing.
Trump looks into Schiff's mind. Why did he do it? Theory #1: He lost his mind — "some kind of a mental breakdown." Theory #2: Because he had the real transcript right there and looked at it and saw nothing wrong, he made up something that would be wrong. The sheet of paper he had in his hand didn't say what he needed, so he just said something else, what he wished was on the paper.

ADDED: Schiff's invention might have arisen from reading the whistleblower's complaint, which said: "Multiple White House officials with direct knowledge of the call informed me that, after an initial exchange of pleasantries, the president used the remainder of the call to advance his personal interests." If the transcript of the phone conversation hadn't become public, Schiff's riff might not seem like such a crazy overreach.

53 comments:

JAORE said...

Schiff had PROOF that Trump was a Russian traitor. Then came the report.

Schiff read a "parody" version of the conversation that was inflammatory BS.

Schiff had (or staff) had contact with the whistle blower before the IG and lied about it.

Schiff should recuse himself from any further investigation of the Ukraine and the impeachment process.

Yancey Ward said...

Schiff had written his opening statement before Trump had announced he was going to release the transcription. Indeed, his parody was written using exactly the incorrect details of the rumorblower's complaint. This tells me that the Democrats were blindsided by the Trump's release of both. I think even Pelosi thought Trump was bluffing about releasing it, and this how she trapped herself with the impeachment inquiry tactic.

And now they are trying desperately to salvage the issue by claiming the transcript is doctored, but that ain't going to work either when Trump releases the notetakers' notes publicly, he is just waiting for the Democrats to get to the end of the limb.

Michael K said...

I vote for #2 but #1 is not impossible.

I just hope Schiff is not in contact with another Hodgkinson.

rehajm said...

Schiff certainly violated rules of the House...

..and you'd think given how criminal their previous candidate was and how that turned out for them the Democrats might want to know if they're choosing a criminal candidate this time around. But no...

rhhardin said...

Schiff's defense would be that he was reading between the lines to make clear what was being implied.

The attack ought to be that Schiff is mentally unbalanced if that's what he gets out of it, not that Schiff claims he's being literal.

The Godfather said...

Lies work. There are still people who think Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from her house. Schiff’s lie reflects what the Democrats need people to believe Trump said, or at least what he meant.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Schitt's behavior and parody-lie should land HIM in the impeachment seat.


BTW- It's a mistake to call Adam Schitt insane. Schitt knows what he is doing. He is a 100% sober totalitarian.

daskol said...

Coup enough for you?

hstad said...

Adam Schiff - "The Party's Over". This may collapse, prior contact [before filing complaint with ICIG] with "Whistleblower" by Schiff or his staff, the entire process for all 6 Congressional Committees.

stevew said...

If you are going to lie you have to be committed to the lie. You have to defend it, and you have to repeat it. Even when presented with unequivocal evidence that it is a lie. Even more so in this case as the lie enables the Democrats to pretend their motives are based on defending the US and the Constitution. They are counting on most of us voter types to not pay attention (not ignore exactly) the minutiae and the deeper details. On this last part they are probably correct.

Big Mike said...

The sheet of paper [Schiff] had in his hand didn't say what he needed, so he just said something else, what he wished was on the paper.

Which is what a bunch of us were saying a couple days ago.

Amadeus 48 said...

Schiff left out the part about CrowdStrike--you know, the group that said Russia hacked the DNC and that apparently has the DNC server. As a favor, Trump wanted some clarity on CrowdStrike.

tim in vermont said...

It was sort of a “Twinkle twinkle Kenneth Starr” moment like Al D’Amato had. Or it will be if Trump can strip away Schiff’s air cover, ,as provided by the press.

Trump is right too that the “argument we are making” as Pelosi put it, as if to say “The position we are taking” as opposed to the “fact of the matter” is kind of absurd.

Bay Area Guy said...

The Left has merged "allegations" with "evidence" and also thinks it's ok to make false allegations to obtain a desired political end.

Regarding the telephone call with Zelensky:

1. Trump didn't pressure Zelensky.
2. Trump didn't seek a quid pro quo.
3. Trump didn't focus on Biden's effort to fire the Ukranian prosecutor investigating Burisma.
4. Trump did want the new Ukraine administration to look into the past Ukranian corruption that tried to influence the 2016 election and tried to smear his name. (Source: 1/11/17 article in Politico.) .

There is absolutely no crime, there is absolutely no wrongdoing, there is absolutely no "high crime or misdemeanor." Anyone who supports impeachment based on this "telephone call" is a dishonest weasel.

Browndog said...

Notice the most insignificant, meaningless, and ignored part of this entire ordeal is the only piece of hard evidence there is; the transcript of the phone call.

Sebastian said...

"You'd think Pelosi would try harder to preserve her credibility."

Why would you think that? And what credibility?

I mean, these are progs fighting dirty, trying to win by any means necessary.

They despise the tender feelings of nice, timid women who enjoy the minutiae of punctuation but have yet to say: no more. As long as Dems think they can bludgeon most of the public into submission, they will continue the all-out war.

Ken B said...

Schiff is not lying. He is not expecting anyone to think these are the president's actual words. He is using standard and obvious rhetorical devices. He is presenting an interpretation, and attempting exegesis to support his interpretation But his paraphrase is ridiculous and his exegesis wrong.

Seeing Red said...

Not dishonest. True believer, useful idiot or hater.

Amadeus 48 said...

By the way, a parody? I think not.

Rory said...

The big problem is that Pelosi's father first leeched onto the public payroll in 1926, and they don't know how to let go.

eric said...

Schiff didn't expect Trump to release the transcript.

Schiff or his staff wrote his opening remarks before Trump released the transcript.

Schiff and the Democrats are smart enough to pivot based on new knowledge. Once Trump released the transcript, which they never thought he'd do, it never occurred to them they needed to change the opening remarks to fit with the new reality

As I've said and Althouse seems to agree with, the purpose of the opening remarks were meant to get a lie half way around the world before the truth could get it's boots on. But what happens if the truth comes before the lie?

Oopsies

Big Mike said...

People wiser than I have been saying that the scheduled two week recess was to give Democrats a chance to explain the case for impeachment to their constituents. I think some of those Congresscritters will be coming back to DC with wet stains in front of their pants and brown stains in back.

Bay Area Guy said...

Look at all the political fuckheads from California:

1. Adam Schiff (D-Cal)
2. Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal, Speaker of House).
3. Sen. Kamala Harris (D -Cal, BJ specialist)
4. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal, Conduit of Blasey-Ford hoax)
4. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Cal, tried to kick Trump off ballot. Denied).

I love California, but it has been hijacked by truly wacked out leftists.

JRoberts said...

This may have been posited previously by others, but I'm coming to the opinion that the Democrats KNOW they can't retake the White House in 2020 and they now plan to keep dialing up the accusations and outrage in an effort to raise money and foil Trump's agenda (including SCOTUS appointments) until they have a stronger presidential candidate in 2024.

Yancey Ward said...

I think we are in a position now to figure out exactly what happened in August. The rumorblower went directly to Adam Schiff before filing the "Whistleblower" complaint, and Schiff and the Democrats brainstormed what to do with it- how to most effectively use it, and I think they decided that the best way would be to file a such a complaint with the ICIG, and hope that Trump would try to cover it up. That failed, ultimately, when Trump just released it instead along with the complaint. They are now brainstorming and trial ballooning the various retreat/counter-attack paths, but there really aren't any- Trump isn't even giving in to them by retracting or disavowing anything he has said in this matter.

tim in vermont said...

This reminds me of when the Democrat prosecutors indicted Casper Weinberger one time, and Ted Stevens another, days before elections, then when it looked like a Democrat might get indicted, that said that it would be dirty pool to indict that person so close to an election. Might have been Hillary’s people claiming that.

Anyway, the rock has been overturned on the corruption of the American government, and it is not pretty. Took a real dick like Donald John Trump to do it, but as was said in “Team America - World Police,” it takes a dick to deal with pussies (Ryan Republicans) and assholes (you know who they are.)

Like so many other books that were supposed to be warnings, the Democrat Party has taken Manufacturing Consent as a “how to.” Chomsky got a lot wrong in his book, the press doesn’t serve the state, it serves The Party. He should have known that, being a fucking commie. He had partisan blinders obviously, but there is not going to be another “Manufacturing Consent” written to describe how a coalition of the super hyper mega wealthy have co-opted the press to enlist them in supplying a government which is frankly for sale to the highest bidder (always them.)

tim maguire said...

Adam Schiff: I have in my hand 57 cases of Donald Trump using hisw personal interests to shape our foreign policy!*

*Classical Reference

Yancey Ward said...

I think if you looked into the families and friends of important chairs/staff of committees in Congress and Secretaries in the Executive Branch of any presidency, you will find corruption that would turn your stomach and have you buying rope for lynchings. I think pretty much all of them take bribe money appropriately "laundered" through what are, in effect, just fronts. So wives, husbands, sons, daughters, nieces, nephews etc. get hired for cushy no-real-work positions just because they are related to powerful politicians.

tim in vermont said...

The funny thing is that we have Obama on tape begging Putin to go easy on him so that he can reward him after the election with compromises to our military security, a conversation that would have gotten Trump impeached, and possibly removed, obviously, and we have Biden bragging about doing what they want to impeach Trump for and we are not. supposed to see the obvious?

That’s why I think most of our trolls here are paid basically trollbots. They only make vague points that are mostly just smears and rarely if ever supported by facts, and they refuse to answer questions, on account of they know their position won’t stand up to questions. Just like this impeachment hearing is cordoned off from any Republican input. Why on earth would a court respect an “impeachment” that hasn’t yet been subject to a vote of the full house based on hearings of exclusively Democrats.

It’s absurd once again.

The Godfather said...

I said upthread that “lies work”, and now we have proof: Pelosi believes Schiff’s lie about what Trump said to Zelensky.

tim in vermont said...

Terry McAuliffe turned his connections obtained by fund raising for the Clintons into fabulous wealth. Harry Reid never made a salary over a couple hundred grand a year and became fabulously wealthy.

Earnest Prole said...

I'm all for requiring Schiff to adhere to the norms we all expect of the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, as long as we can also agree his ridiculous paraphrase of Trump was the most Trumpian thing ever spoken by an American politician other than Trump.

tim in vermont said...

If there was an actual hearing, a Republican could point out that the “favor” asked was to do with investigation of 2016 foreign interference in the election, which is of interest to the nation as a whole. It’s not Trump’s fault that the Democrats are the ones who sure look actually guilty.

It always amazed me how steadfastly Mueller avoided looking into the origins of the accusations he was purportedly investigating. At least until I. found out he was senile and the “investigation” was actually being run by partisan Clinton henchmen. The onese who used BleachBit and hammers to destroy evidence subpoenaed by Congress. Imagin if Trump had taken BleachBit and hammers to the serviers containing the transcripts?

This is so absurd only the singleminded dedication of the press to keeping the facts from getting out is keeping this alive.

narayanan said...

Skylark said...
...The onese who used BleachBit and hammers to destroy evidence subpoenaed by Congress. Imagin if Trump had taken BleachBit and hammers to the serviers containing the transcripts?...
______________

so called Libertarian would point out >>>>
evidence subpoenaed by Congress was on private property !?@#
serviers containing the transcripts?... belong to PEOPLE !@#$%

wendybar said...

Is there anybody out there that REALLY believes that this whole thing WASN'T a set up??? Come on.....

Francisco D said...

Is there anybody out there that REALLY believes that this whole thing WASN'T a set up??? Come on.....

A lot of people only pay cursory attention to the headlines and then it is usually ABC, NBC, CBS or NPR. These outlets not only spin but they cover up information that contradicts their narrative.

My (moderate Democrat) wife was shocked when I said that the Obama Administration was going to be in a world of hurt when Durham, Horowitz and Durham do their thing. She had no idea that the Trump campaign was eavesdropped by the FBI.

tim in vermont said...

"A lot of people only pay cursory attention to the headlines and then it is usually ABC, NBC, CBS or NPR”

There seem to be people who wouldn’t know from the smell that shit stinks unless they hear it from the TV.

rcocean said...

I guess you haven't' been following Rep. sniff. He's a goddamn liar, and he lied about Trump all through the Mueller/Russia investigation. Aka for about 2 years. I don't give liars the benefit of the doubt. Trump has to, because he's President. He's a typical Leftist who thinks the means justify the end.

I'm not shocked he did what he did. I'm shocked people are making up excuses for him. But then the R's in Congress don't want to fight, but lose gracefully.

daskol said...

Sometimes that Schiff looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a Schiff is he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn’t even seem to be livin’… ’til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. ::Robert Shaw Jaws voice::

FullMoon said...

A lot of people only pay cursory attention to the headlines and then it is usually ABC, NBC, CBS or NPR. These outlets not only spin but they cover up information that contradicts their narrative.

Tucker Carlson played a clip of those news shows claiming Trump acted like a mob boss, a gangster, Tony Soprano, etc.

They were ordered to use those talking points from Schiffs lies and to ignore the legit transcript.

narciso said...

he looks like kip the green alien from futurama

Kevin said...

Pelosi wants "the American people to know what that phone call was about

The American people can read.

They require neither Schiff nor Pelosi to tell them what the symbols represent.

Kevin said...

The plan was for Trump to claim Executive Privilege.

Then Schiff could paraphrase the report however he wished.

And then they'd vote based on "the coverup".

Those were the instructions that came with the ACME Impeachment Process.

tim in vermont said...

I think it would be funny if Trump set up a “private server” for all of these kinds of transcripts.

mockturtle said...

The American people don't give a Schiff what the phone call was about.

Brian said...

That failed, ultimately, when Trump just released it instead along with the complaint.

I think they were misled by the fact that Trump had it on his super secret classified "vault". Since it was there it presented two reasons why it would never be released:

1. Because it was classified they could rely on their allies in the intelligence community to delay declassification as well as redacting things to make it seem more sinister.

2. Since it was in the secret vault they expected that Trump really really didn't want to let it out and would fight to keep it priveleged.

Trump saw through both of those. But I keep being told that he's an idiot and is reckless and is crazy and doesn't know what he's doing. So that can't be it.

Michael K said...

I think it would be funny if Trump set up a “private server” for all of these kinds of transcripts.

Oh, I think he will. No more transcripts. The audio will be preserved in a secret server that has no internet access, sort of like the type server Hillary was supposed to use. Trump is learning how thick the snake pit is.

tim in vermont said...

If she holds a formal vote, gets a majority, and the impeachment begins, Republicans get subpoena power. Democrats can’t afford to have both sides of the story told. That’s not what I would call a confident stance.

tim in vermont said...

I wonder if it would have been bad if he destroyed the transcripts in burn bags?

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2016/0705/Did-Hillary-Clinton-violate-protocol-by-using-burn-bags

Kafka couldn’t write this shit. She took hundreds of millions of dollars at the time that she was destroying records of meetings and emails. Trump is the bad guy!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Can you figure out why no one's going to take this anti-Schiff case/obsession? of yours seriously?

It's nice to know that Andrew Napolitano has gotten the real issue at stake here figured out. Maybe he should get a blog.

Unknown said...

Schiff is admitting the entire prosecution is for a straw man.

tim in vermont said...

So Nancy Pelosi’s son is on the board of one company in the Ukraine, and an energy executive at another.... It’s amazing how all of these children of prominent Democrat politicians are so well qualified to serve at companies in Ukraine that are heavily dependent on getting licenses and leases from the government there!

So the “whistleblower” was heavily involved in digging up dirt on Trump in the Ukraine for the last election and was moved out of his sensitive position there by the Trump administration....

So Romney has business interests there. It’s good to be an American politician bullying the locals in an economically poor, but energy rich country like the Ukraine. Why is it that. well connected Americans are getting rich off of that country when their own citizens remain so poor?

Kay said...

I give Schiff a pass because of he was using hyperbole. But I also give The Donald a pass because this is similar to what other politicians do. I’m not happy about either of these fact, but there are no other alternatives in terms of the people we elect to office.