In his closing remarks at the Trump impeachment trial, House manager Adam Schiff attempted to prove his long-standing contention that the president is a bully and a tyrant by repeating an unconfirmed quote from an unidentified “Trump confidant.” The mystery source reportedly said, according to Schiff’s source, CBS News, “GOP senators were warned ‘vote against your president, and your head will be on a pike.'”
It was a dumb comment, and Schiff took blowback from a number of Republican senators he was trying to convince of Trump’s guilt. But it didn’t stop Schiff from attempting to prove that the president is “wrathful and vindictive,” two adjectives he used in a reaction to a tweet by Trump that read:
Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2020
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
In particular, Schiff focused on the phrase pay the price, which he insisted was a palpable threat. Appearing on “Meet the Press” the same day the tweet was published, Schiff told host Chuck Todd, “Look at the president’s tweets about me today saying that I should pay a price.”
“Do you take that as a threat?” Todd asked.
“I think it’s intended to be,” Schiff replied.
Watch:
WATCH: @RepAdamSchiff: "Look at the president's tweets about me today saying I should pay a price.."@chucktodd: "Do you take that as a threat?"@RepAdamSchiff: "I think it is intended to be." pic.twitter.com/8uWXRSJKj0
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 26, 2020
The liberal media agreed. Mother Jones called the tweet “more terrifying than you” think, and Vox provided a catalog of other threats Trump has made.
Writers on the right protested that pay the price is a toothless and commonly used metaphor, even pointing out a recent occasion when Nancy Pelosi herself used it.
Speaker Pelosi says Senate Republicans must let witnesses Testify or they will “Pay a Price”.
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) January 27, 2020
But liberals had made their minds up. Trump is an ogre and an ongoing danger to the country.
Perhaps the richest irony of all is that Schiff and his water carriers in the media have it precisely backwards when it comes to which party really threatens its members when they step out of line. Consider, yesterday afternoon, the Los Angeles Times tweeted this pair of tweets in rapid succession.
Update: Sen. Feinstein clarified her earlier comments suggesting that she could vote to acquit the president by saying, ‘It’s clear the president’s actions were wrong.’https://t.co/82GoQk4Oc1
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) January 28, 2020
So what happened between Tweet 1 and Tweet 2? Adam Schiff would probably tell you that Donald Trump threatened her.
