Adam Schiff takes on Trump, calling him an 'erratic hothead.' Now he's feeling the heat
WASHINGTON - Not during the fierce competition of Harvard Law School, or the rough-and-tumble of life as a federal prosecutor. Not when he convicted the first FBI agent accused of spying for a foreign government. Not even when he won one of the most furious campaigns for a seat in the House of Representatives, defeating a Republican who had relentlessly pursued President Bill Clinton.
Not once in the political origin story of U.S. Rep. Adam B. Schiff does the record show him being labeled as "shifty." But, then, the 10-term California Democrat never faced an opponent quite like his current one, a president of the United States happy to turn a rival's name into a potty joke and a schoolboy's taunt.
To President Donald Trump and millions of his loyalists, it's now "Shifty Schiff," though other insults will do. "Liar" and "traitor" skitter across the internet and even rained on Schiff at what was supposed to be a friendly event last month in his district. The relentless rebranding comes with a financial bonus for Trump's reelection campaign - $34 for every "Pencil-Neck Adam Schiff" T-shirt sold.
Schiff initially countered Trump with gentle corrections, leading The New York Times to say that, as an attack dog, he was "more labradoodle than Doberman." But his tone has hardened. In September, he compared Trump's furiously debated phone call with
