Rep. Adam Schiff said the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which has been heavily critical of his work as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has “no credibility.”
The California Democrat told the Daily Beast in a podcast last week that the Wall Street Journal has become a “Trumpist” newspaper when asked to respond to an editorial that urged people not to trust him anymore because of how he “spread falsehoods shamelessly” for three years with his repeated claims of there being evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“It’s really a retreat of the same attacks they made earlier when [Attorney General] Bill Barr came out and misled the country about the Mueller report. Look, the Wall Street Journal editorial page has the same essential content as Fox prime time and the same joint ownership,” he said, referring to News Corp.
“I’ve had Wall Street Journal reporters tell me how embarrassed they are by their editorial page,” Schiff added. “This is the same group of editors that repeatedly called for Mueller to be fired when he was doing the investigation, who said that Trump didn’t collude with Russia but that Hillary Clinton did collude with Russia.”
“So they have really no credibility as far as I’m concerned — and I think millions of Americans,” he said.
The congressman said the Wall Street Journal has joined what he called the “media onslaught” in which President Trump will push something out on Twitter, right-leaning outlets will “prime the pump,” while the Wall Street Journal editorial page is “always happy to add their voice.”
He noted that the most recent editorial aimed at him is the 20th or 30th attack piece. “I’ve lost count,” he quipped.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board published an editorial Tuesday that said “no one should ever believe another word” from Schiff after the House Intelligence Committee released dozens of witness interview transcripts showing several top intelligence, law enforcement, and national security officials from the Obama administration all denied seeing evidence of collusion even as the California Democrat insisted in public that such evidence did exist.
The piece also took a swing at Trump, saying he “often spreads falsehoods and invents facts, but at least he’s paid a price for it in media criticism and public mistrust.”
[Read more: Gowdy ready to expose reporters who ‘aided and abetted’ Adam Schiff during Russia investigation]
