Skip to main content
  • Online media
  • Tariffs
  • Epstein
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • RSS
  • Take Action
  • Search
  • Donate

Media Matters for America

  • News & Analysis
  • Research & Studies
  • Audio & Video
  • Archives

Media Matters for America

  • Nav
  • Search
  • News & Analysis
  • Research & Studies
  • Audio & Video
  • Archives
  • Online media
  • Tariffs
  • Epstein
  • Take Action
  • Search
  • Donate
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • RSS
Rep. Adam Schiff and conservative media figures Rush Limbaugh, Jeanine Pirro, Mike Huckabee, and Sean Hannity

Ceci Freed / Media Matters | Gage Skidmore via Creative Commons

Conservative media vilify Adam Schiff as Trump's impeachment trial begins

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published 01/24/20 11:19 AM EST

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!”

The Latest

  1. Laura Ingraham praises DOJ investigations of Walz and Frey, suggests it could get “a lot spicier for them”

    Video & Audio 01/16/26 8:05 PM EST

  2. Sean Hannity argues with radio caller concerned ICE “may be delving into some things that could be against the Fourth Amendment”

    Video & Audio 01/16/26 7:36 PM EST

  3. The incendiary and demonizing chyrons on Fox News evening programming regarding Minnesota, ICE, and protests

    Research/Study 01/16/26 7:04 PM EST

  4. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes calls Kash Patel “a traitor” who has “become part of the cover-up and part of the deep state”

    Video & Audio 01/16/26 7:02 PM EST

  5. Nick Fuentes on today's social media: “It's filled with this kind of content, conspiracy content, Israel-critical content. … I benefited from it, profited from it, from an ideological point of view, from a monetary point of view.”

    Video & Audio 01/16/26 5:56 PM EST

Pagination

  • Previous page ‹‹
  • …
  • Current page 57
  • …
  • Next page ››

In This Article

  • Trump impeachment

    Trump Impeachment Inquiry
  • Sean Hannity

    Sean-Hannity-MMFA-Tag.png
  • Rush Limbaugh

    Rush-Limbaugh-MMFA-Tag.png

Related

  1. Right-wing media falsely accuse Rep. Adam Schiff of colluding with the whistleblower

    Article 10/03/19 3:00 PM EDT

  2. Tucker Carlson: Rep. Adam Schiff is “demonstrably mentally ill”

    Video & Audio 09/26/19 9:08 PM EDT

  3. What Fox News aired last night instead of the impeachment trial

    Article 01/23/20 11:28 AM EST

Media Matters for America

Sign Up for Email Updates
  • About
  • Contact
  • Corrections
  • Submissions
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • RSS

© 2026 Media Matters for America

RSS