Rep. Lee Zeldin slammed House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff for treating Americans like “idiots” in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump.

The New York Republican called out Schiff’s handling of the proceedings as well as some of his latest statements during an appearance on “America’s News Headquarters” on Sunday, telling Fox News host Eric Shawn that the facts are on Trump’s side.



(Video: YouTube/Fox News)

“The people who are pushing for impeachment have been pushing for impeachment since Donald Trump was elected — since he was getting sworn into office,” Zeldin said in response to comments by Schiff as he discussed whether Democrats will vote on articles of impeachment during his appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Adam Schiff really does think that many Americans are idiots,” Zeldin said.

“If you remember March 22nd, 2017, he goes on another network, and he says that he has more than circumstantial evidence that President Trump colluded with the Russians. This is evidence that he hasn’t yet produced, [that] I haven’t seen, [former Special Counsel Robert] Mueller couldn’t find,” Zeldin continued. “He made up what he called a parody version of the [July 25] call transcript, but he only said that after he got called out.”

The congressman also blasted Schiff for not revealing that members of his team had met with the whistleblower whose complaint about Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president sparked the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

“It turns out that [Schiff’s] team was in contact with the whistleblower before this person had even filed the whistleblower complaint or had even hired an attorney,” he said.

“He’s made claims during his opening statements and his closing statements — trying to write the world’s greatest parody … trying to connect dots that aren’t actually connected,” Zeldin pointed out.

“He’ll say something’s a firsthand truth that shouldn’t be doubted and then you dig deeper and you realize it’s actually Ambassador [William] Taylor telling us that, Tim Morrison told him that [Amb. Gordon] Sondland told Morrison — the president told Sondland,” Zeldin continued. “Give me a break!”

“The facts are on the president’s side,” he added.

Schiff would not commit on whether there would be a vote on articles of impeachment during his “Meet the Press” appearance, and again when CNN’s “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper asked him about impeaching Trump.

“If the facts aren’t contested and your committee is writing up the report and you don’t, at least as of now, have any scheduled witnesses or depositions — do you think President Trump should be impeached?” Tapper asked.

“I want to discuss this with my constituents and my colleagues before I make a final judgment on it,” the California Democrat replied. “But, there are a couple of really important things we need to think about.”

Zeldin called out Schiff and Democrats for not focusing on the important issues Americans voted them into office to deal with.

“We should be delivering for the American people,” he said. “But instead, he is trying to pay off the people who put that gavel in his hand, who put the gavel in [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi’s hand and it’s really infuriating a lot of us who want to see progress.”