Conservative media vilify Adam Schiff as Trump's impeachment trial begins
Written by Zachary Pleat
Published
Conservative media figures have engaged in cruel personal attacks against Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the lead House impeachment manager in President Donald Trump’s Senate trial, since it began on Tuesday. These attacks included questioning his intelligence, calling him “human slime,” and ranting that Schiff is a “lunatic” and “totally unhinged.”
Right-wing media claims have already made it into the Senate trial, where Trump’s defense team repeated talking points that have been on Fox News. Fox has also urged its viewers to ignore the trial, calling it “boring,” and individual hosts even apologized for airing parts of it on their shows or said they shouldn’t show any of it. Conservative media are so desperate to undermine the trial that they have degenerated from lying about the impeachment process to launching ugly personal attacks against Schiff.
- Fox News host Sean Hannity called Schiff: a “lunatic,” “totally unhinged,” and a “national disgrace,” and said he had a “mental breakdown.”
- Later on Hannity’s show, Fox host Jeanine Pirro said Schiff was “not too smart” and suggested he was “stupid” for referencing Trump’s attempt to cover up his Ukraine scandal.
- Pro-Trump blogger Jim Hoft claimed that Schiff is mentally ill, writing on his website that Schiff “appears to suffer from Munchausen Syndrome.”
- Disgraced former Fox host Bill O’Reilly said on Hannity’s radio show: “How long -- and they should do a study on this -- can a human being stare at Adam Schiff before doing harm to yourself?”
- Fox contributor Mike Huckabee on Twitter referred to “Adam (the pile of) Schiff” and said it’s “like having Jeffrey Dahmer lecture about nutrition and healthy eating.”
- Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh called Schiff “human slime.”
- Fox contributor and Washington Times opinion editor Charlie Hurt wrote on Twitter that Schiff is “a true greaseball.”
- Fox host Mark Levin claimed on Twitter that Schiff was promoting “an evil narrative” and is a “pathological liar.”
- On Hannity Thursday night, Levin referred to Schiff and other House impeachment managers as “mobsters.”
- Fox host Laura Ingraham dismissed Schiff’s accurate statement that the “transcript” Trump released of his July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president was incomplete by saying, “It's late at night, maybe he’s getting a little dizzy, I don’t know.”
- Fox Nation hosts Diamond and Silk wrote on Twitter, “The only thing [Schiff’s] convinced Americans of is he’s full of Schiff!”