Democratic California Sen. Adam Schiff showed his hypocrisy on political rhetoric on “The New Yorker Radio Hour” on Friday when he told a vulgar story about what he wished he had said to President Donald Trump.
On NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in June, Schiff lamented “the coarsening of political dialogue … the way that people refer to their political opponents, the ad hominem nature of the attacks, the flirtation with violence.” However, in his interview with The New Yorker, Schiff recounted wanting to respond to Trump with profanity after the president criticized him on Twitter.
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“I live rent-free in that guy’s head, and let me tell you, it’s pretty scary in there. I have a suspicion, which I hesitate to articulate ’cause it’s kind of a vain suspicion, but I’ll share it anyway,” Schiff said. “During the Russian investigation, I’m deposing Jared Kushner. And it is just shortly after Trump has first attacked me on his Twitter account: ‘Sleazy Adam Schiff, corrupt this, blah, blah, blah, spends too much time on TV, pushing the hoax,’ something like that.”
“And I remember at the time being desperate to respond, I’m being attacked by the president … This was going to tens of millions of people … I remember being on the House floor, and Mike Thompson, my colleague from Northern California, grabs my arm and he says, ‘Adam, you should tweet back: Mr. President, when they go low, we go high. Go fuck yourself.’ And I so wanted to do it,” he added. “If I write a book one day of the tweets I wish I’d sent, that’ll be on the cover.”
Scrutiny of incendiary rhetoric has intensified amid major incidents of political violence, including the 2024 assassination attempts against Trump and the Sept. 10 assassination of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk.
A majority of Democrats — 54% — agreed that “extreme political rhetoric used by some in the media and by political leaders was an important contributor” to Kirk’s killing, according to an NBC News poll published in November. Meanwhile, 73% of Republicans and 53% of independent voters agreed.
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