Adam Schiff Accuses Trump of Making ‘Veiled Threat’ Against Him

(INSET: Donald Trump) WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 19: (L-R) Democratic Counsel Daniel Goldma
Photos by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Joshua Caplan

Appearing Wednesday on CNN’s Newsroom, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) accused President Donald Trump of issuing a “veiled threat” against him amid the House Democrats’ ongoing impeachment proceedings.

A partial transcript is as follows:  

DANA BASH: The president in the Oval Office attacked you directly. He was sitting next to the president of Guatemala. He lamented you can’t be prosecuted for telling what you call parody of the July 25th phone call. Here’s what he said: “In Guatemala, they handle things much tougher than that.” Is that a threat?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF: I think that’s what he intended it to be. This is a president, after all, who has said of people who blow the whistle on him that they’re traitors and spies and should be treated as traitors and spies used to be treated. We used to execute traitors and spies. So this is not a president above threatening anyone who gets in his way, anyone who stands up to him.

BASH: Do you think jail is really what he meant?

SCHIFF: No. I think the undertone is very much a reference to Guatemala’s violent history. But look, He is not going to intimidate me. I think it was quite deliberately designed to be a threat and this is the president’s modus operandi. I’m not the first person he’s made a veiled threat about, I won’t be the last. But this is precisely the kind of conduct Americans should not accept in the Oval Office.

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