Trump suggests Adam Schiff should be arrested 'for treason'

Don't look now, but President Trump is calling for the arrest of his political opponents again.

Trump once again lashed out Monday morning at House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who he previously accused in a Sunday night tweet of being guilty of "treason." Schiff during the testimony of acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire last week had read what he described as a "parody" of Trump's phone call with Ukraine's president using his own original language that he said was meant to capture its "essence."

Since then, Trump has been repeatedly blasting Schiff for what he calls a "FAKE & terrible statement," taking things up a notch quite a bit Monday morning by suggesting he should be arrested "for treason."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

This was just one part of a wild Monday morning Twitter tear for Trump, who also declared the Ukraine scandal "closed" and inaccurately suggested the whistleblower rules were recently changed in an all-caps tweet.

CNN notes Schiff's summary of the Ukraine call "did make it easy for viewers to get confused," with the House Democrat creating the false impression that Trump told Ukraine seven times to "make up dirt" on Biden. Yet rather than simply taking issue with the accuracy of Schiff's statement, Trump is now calling for his arrest over it. CNN's Daniel Dale dryly points out the obvious, tweeting, "It is very much not illegal for a member of a congressional committee to paraphrase someone badly."