President Donald Trump blasted "Little Adam Schiff" as a liar and a leaker in a Twitter rant on Monday morning just as the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee was making moves to release the Democrat rebuttal memo. Representative Schiff has described the memo released last week highlighting abuses by the FBI and DOJ in obtaining FISA warrants as "a political hit job."
On Twitter, Schiff took a hit from the president:
Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper! Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2018
Shortly afterward, Schiff fired back:
Mr. President, I see you’ve had a busy morning of “Executive Time.” Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or...really anything else. https://t.co/lVqQRu2Gjl
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 5, 2018
Of course, the president has already addressed the "Dreamers" issue, telling Democrats that he will agree to a path to citizenship if they agree to funding the wall and changing the immigration system. President Trump even called for Democrats to make a deal in a separate tweet.
Ever since the House memo, backed by Republicans, was released on Friday, Democrats have been pushing for the release of their own 10-page rebuttal memo. CNN reports that the push could come today and although the president seems opposed, House Speaker Paul Ryan's office says it could be released under certain conditions:
"Well, we are going to try to force another vote on this," Schiff told CBS on Friday about his memo. "The Republicans voted down the release of the Democratic response, which was quite breathtaking, because they said they were offering their own memo in the interest of full transparency."
House Speaker Paul Ryan's spokeswoman AshLee Strong said the speaker is open to the Democrat's memo to be released.
"The speaker is in favor of greater transparency," Strong said in a statement. "If it is scrubbed to ensure it does not reveal sources and methods of our intelligence gathering, the speaker supports the release of the Democrats' memo."
Appearing on Fox and Friends on Monday morning to discuss his memo, Represenative Devin Nunes said that the constant attacks on him and his memo shows they are on target: "When you are being criticized like this by all the major networks and being attacked by the left, we know we are getting closer to the truth," Nunes said.
Nunes said he believes that the American people are just starting to get to the truth. He added that while the Democrats have been promising proof of collusion between Trump and Russia for a year they keep delivering "goose eggs."