Revisiting The Adam Schiff Narrative Read To Congress

Even CNN fact-checked parts of the reading that don't add up:

Schiff: "I hear what you want. I have a favor I want from you, though. And I'm going to say this only seven times, so you better listen good. I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent. Understand? Lots of it, on this and on that."

Analysis: Here's where Schiff veered quite a distance from what the rough transcript says.

Trump did not repeat a demand related to a political opponent "seven times," according to the rough transcript. He told Zelensky three times that he would get his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to call Zelensky. He twice mentioned Biden's effort to get a Ukrainian prosecutor fired, saying this is what he wanted Zelensky to look into. (The prosecutor was widely criticized for failing to prosecute corruption, and there is no evidence of Biden wrongdoing.

Trump said in the call, "I would like you to do us a favor though," nearly identical to Schiff's version. But the next thing Trump said was not about Biden -- it was that he wanted Zelensky to look into something related to cybersecurity company CrowdStrike and "the server," possibly referring to Democratic National Committee computers hacked by Russia in 2016.

And here:

Schiff: "This is in sum and character what the president was trying to communicate with the president of Ukraine. It would be funny if it wasn't such a graphic betrayal of the President's oath of office. But as it does represent a real betrayal, there's nothing the president says here that is in America's interest after all."

Analysis: This concluding quote may have further confused viewers. Schiff suggested here that he had just provided listeners with what "the president says," though he had added in things that Trump did not actually say.

And here:

A 'parody'?

Later in the hearing, Republican Rep. Mike Turner criticized Schiff's comments, saying that "sometimes fiction is better than the actual words or the text." 

"But luckily the American public are smart," Turner said. "They have the transcript. They've read the conversation. They know when someone's just making it up." 

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Schiff responded by saying that his summary of Trump's call was "meant to be at least part in parody," a claim Trump's campaign also criticized. Schiff had not clearly distinguished the serious parts of his analysis from the supposed "parody."

Schiff's post-hearing response

Asked by CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Thursday whether he regretted saying what he did, Schiff said, "No, I think everyone understood -- and my GOP colleagues may feign otherwise. But when I said, suggested, that it was as if the President said, 'Listen carefully, because I'm only gonna tell you seven more times' -- that I was mocking the President's conduct." 

Schiff continued to stand by the comments on Friday morning. 

"It was entirely clear in context of Chairman Schiff's opening statement that he was not misleading anyone. He began that portion of his statement by saying, 'In essence, what the President Trump communicates is this,' and then proceeded to describe, accurately, the message the President communicated on the call," Schiff spokesman Patrick Boland said in an email.

Boland added: "When his Republican colleagues suggested they had been confused about that portion, he clarified further that he was not reading the transcript. The suggestions that he was misleading gives credence to the absurd attacks from the President and his allies in their desperate effort to distract from their wrongdoing."