Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) took steps to move forward with impeaching the president, Donald Trump has been flooding social media with posts slamming his political opponents and warning that their impeachment efforts will backfire. On Sunday, President Trump posted a quote from a pastor that, as usual, has sparked outrage, including at least one lawmaker from his own side of the aisle.
Quoting Pastor Robert Jeffries and citing Fox News, Trump tweeted Sunday evening that if the Democrats are able to remove the sitting president, it will cause a “Civil War-like fracture” in the country:
Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats can’t put down the Impeachment match. They know they couldn’t beat him in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, and they’re increasingly aware of the fact that they won’t win against him in 2020, and Impeachment is the only tool they have to get rid of Donald J. Trump — And the Democrats don’t care if they burn down and destroy this nation in the process. I have never seen the Evangelical Christians more angry over any issue than this attempt to illegitimately remove this President from office, overturn the 2016 Election, and negate the votes of millions of Evangelicals in the process. They know the only Impeachable offense that President Trump has committed was beating Hillary Clinton in 2016. That’s the unpardonable sin for which the Democrats will never forgive him … If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.
… If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.” Pastor Robert Jeffress, @FoxNews
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019
As is the case with most of his politically charged tweets, Trump’s post was met with condemnation from his critics, many declaring the “Civil War-like fracture” reference to be a “threat.” As pointed out by The Hill, among the critics of the quote is Illinois Republican Adam Kinzinger, who decried the post as “repugnant.”
“I have visited nations ravaged by civil war,” Kinzinger tweeted in response. “[President Trump] I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant.”
I have visited nations ravaged by civil war. @realDonaldTrump I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant. https://t.co/a5Bae7bP7g
— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) September 30, 2019
Trump started off this week hammering the Ukraine call and impeachment theme some more. Early Monday, Trump tweeted that the “whistleblower” complaint is “not holding up” under scrutiny.
“The Fake Whistleblower complaint is not holding up,” Trump tweeted. “It is mostly about the call to the Ukrainian President which, in the name of transparency, I immediately released to Congress & the public. The Whistleblower knew almost nothing, its 2ND HAND description of the call is a fraud!”
The Fake Whistleblower complaint is not holding up. It is mostly about the call to the Ukrainian President which, in the name of transparency, I immediately released to Congress & the public. The Whistleblower knew almost nothing, its 2ND HAND description of the call is a fraud!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019
The Federalist’s Sean Davis reported last week that the whistleblower’s complaint, which was based on second-hand knowledge, would not have been allowed if the intelligence community had not allegedly changed the rules about such complaints a month before it was filed, allowing second-hand knowledge rather than requiring first-hand knowledge as it had previously.
“The new complaint document no longer requires potential whistleblowers who wish to have their concerns expedited to Congress to have direct, first-hand knowledge of the alleged wrongdoing that they are reporting,” Davis reported. “The brand new version of the whistleblower complaint form, which was not made public until after the transcript of Trump’s July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and the complaint addressed to Congress were made public, eliminates the first-hand knowledge requirement and allows employees to file whistleblower complaints even if they have zero direct knowledge of underlying evidence and only ‘heard about [wrongdoing] from others.’”
Subsequent reports, however, have called the claim into question, citing evidence that second-hand knowledge has always been allowed by the intelligence community in whistleblower complaints.
Trump also returned to calling for action against Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who mischaracterized the contents of the transcript of Trump’s call with Zelensky, an action Schiff later defended as a “parody.”
“Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people,” Trump tweeted. “It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?”
Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people. It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019
In his remarks to Congress last week about the July 25 call, instead of simply reading from the transcript, Schiff “paraphrased” the conversation, but added in incriminating elements:
In essence, what the President Trump communicates is this: 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. You know what I mean? 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. I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent, understand? Lots of dirt, on this and on that. I’m going to put you in touch with people, and not just any people. I’m going to put you in touch with the Attorney General of the United States — my Attorney General, Bill Barr — he’s got the whole weight of American law enforcement behind him. And I’m going to put you in touch with Rudy, you’re going to love him. Trust me. You know what I’m asking, so I’m only going to say this a few more times, in a few more ways. And don’t call me again. I’ll call you when you’ve done what I asked.
But as the transcript of the call shows, Trump did not ask for “dirt” on Biden; rather, he suggested Zelensky “look into” the corruption allegations involving the Bidens that had previously been under investigation.
“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that 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,” Trump told Zelensky. “Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution, so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me.”
This article has been updated to include a reference to reports undermining the claim about complaints based on second-hand knowledge.