Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California threw a temper tantrum Wednesday after Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin called him an “aspiring fiction writer.”
The clash took place during a hearing held by the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee. Schiff, who often made claims about alleged collusion between President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia on the air during his first term, asked about the cancellation of a grant to the city of Santa Ana.
“By the way, I understand you are an aspiring fiction writer,” Zeldin said as he flipped through a document while looking up the grant.
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The House of Representative passed a resolution by Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida that censured Schiff over his pushing of claims that Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia in 2023. The Steele Dossier, which was used to further allegations of collusion, was later discredited, with special counsel John Durham finding that the FBI “did not and could not corroborate” the claims from the dossier in his report.
Then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy removed Schiff from the House Intelligence Committee in January 2023, citing his claims regarding Trump and Russia as one of the reasons for the removal.
“Oh, yeah. Well, I understand your view that you can cut half of the agency and it won’t affect people’s health, or their water, their air. That, to me, is a big fiction, Mr. Zeldin,” Schiff said, talking over Zeldin, who mentioned the wildfires that devastated parts of the Los Angeles area.
“I think Mr. Zeldin, if your if your children were drinking water, if your children were drinking water in Santa Ana, Mr. Zeldin, maybe you wouldn’t be so cavalier about whether there was lead in their water,” Schiff continued. “Maybe you would give a damn instead of coming in here and suggesting that any grant that takes lead out of the water must be waste, fraud or abuse, because you need the money for a tax cut for rich people, because you’re totally beholden to the oil industry. You could give a rat’s ass about how much cancer your agency causes.”
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