Rep. Adam Schiff, one of the key players in the impeachment of President Donald Trump, thinks Trump delivered a "veiled threat" the day before Wednesday's impeachment vote.
Speaking with CNN Wednesday morning, hours before the House voted to impeach Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, the California Democrat was asked about Trump's press conference the previous evening in which he said, "In Guatemala, they handle things much tougher than that."
The comment was directed at Schiff's interpretation of what was spoken on the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a call that led to the impeachment effort.
Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN, "I think that's what he intended it to be" when asked if Trump's remark was a threat.
"This is a president, after all, who has said of people who blow the whistle on him that they're traitors and spies and should be treated as traitors and spies used to be treated," Schiff continued. "We used to execute traitors and spies. So this is not a president above threatening anyone who gets in his way, anyone who stands up to him."
The Senate will next take up Trump's impeachment via a trial on both articles, although it's unclear when that trial will begin. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was expected to speak on the Senate floor Thursday morning.
Schiff called Trump's words a "veiled threat."
"I think it was quite deliberately designed to be a threat, and this is the president's modus operandi," he said. "I'm not the first person he's made a veiled threat about, I won't be the last. But this is precisely the kind of conduct Americans should not accept in the Oval Office."
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