Trump Egregiously Misquotes Fox News To Attack Rival
At first, the tweet seemed like standard criticism from President Donald Trump.
“Congressman [Adam] Schiff omitted and distorted key facts,” he said, appearing to quote a Fox News report about the California Democrat, who has frequently butted heads with the president over the investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
“So, what else is new,” Trump added. “He is a total phony!”
“Congressman Schiff omitted and distorted key facts” @FoxNews So, what else is new. He is a total phony!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2018
But CNN’s eagle-eyed Brian Stelter noticed something off about the tweet. Though Trump had suggested that a Fox News correspondent was saying Schiff had “omitted and distorted key facts” in a memo by Democrats about the Russia probe released on Saturday, Fox News’ Molly Line actually said the opposite.
“Congressman Schiff, he argues [a] Republican memo omitted and distorted key facts, that it was initially meant to mislead the public,” Line said of the GOP document released earlier this month that alleged FBI spying abuses.
As Line put it, the Democratic memo that refutes the GOP’s “was supposed to be the rebuttal memo that was meant to show what was left out.”
Below is Schiff’s announcement of the new memo. In his tweet, he said the Republican version “omitted and distorted key facts in order to mislead the public.”
Some time ago, Republicans on our committee released a declassified memo that omitted and distorted key facts in order to mislead the public and impugn the integrity of the FBI.
We can now tell you what they left out: https://t.co/jeVCVTBUBZ— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 24, 2018
That Trump would so egregiously misquote a news report ― from his favorite network no less― to attack a rival shows that he, not Schiff, is the one omitting and distorting key facts.
Watch the clip below:
@HowardKurtz Trump: "Congressman Schiff omitted and distorted key facts” @FoxNews So, what else is new. He is a total phony!https://t.co/eYGVR69omQ
FOX Anchor Molly Line actually said: Congressman Schiff he argues the Republican memo omitted and distorted key facts. #MediaBuzz pic.twitter.com/Ske58I3Ihf— Richard W. (@IceManNYR) February 25, 2018
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.