President Donald Trump took to twitter over the weekend into Monday morning to attack the whistleblower at the center of a growing scandal around Ukraine that's led to an impeachment inquiry led House Democrats.
At one point during Trump's diatribe, the president tweeted supportive comments from Dallas-based evangelical pastor, Robert Jeffress who said during a Fox News interview that if Democrats were able to lead a successful impeachment inquiry against the president, there would be a "Civil War-like fracture in this nation."
“Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats can’t put down the Impeachment match. They know they couldn’t beat him in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, and they’re increasingly aware of the fact that they won’t win against him in 2020, and Impeachment is the only tool they have to get rid of Donald J. Trump - And the Democrats don’t care if they burn down and destroy this nation in the process. I have never seen the Evangelical Christians more angry over any issue than this attempt to illegitimately remove this President from office, overturn the 2016....Election, and negate the votes of millions of Evangelicals in the process. They know the only Impeachable offense that President Trump has committed was beating Hillary Clinton in 2016. That’s the unpardonable sin for which the Democrats will never forgive him. If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.” Pastor Robert Jeffress, @FoxNews," Trump wrote in a series of tweets Sunday evening.
Trump's warning comes as Democrats probe a phone call between the president and Ukrainian President Volodymry Zelenskyy, a transcript of which showed Trump asking the foreign leader to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's family. At around the same time of the phone call, the Trump administration had placed a hold on hundreds of millions of military aid intended for Ukraine.
In a separate tweet on Monday morning, Trump called the whistleblower complaint as "fake" saying it was "not holding up" despite the fact the complaint lined up with the July 25 call between the two world leaders. The complaint was deemed credible by Trump-appointed acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, who released a copy of the report to Congress last week.
Trump also went after House Intelligence Committee Chairperson Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), wondering aloud if the congressman should be arrested for treason after Schiff relayed part of the call during Maguire's testimony last week.
"Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people. It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?" Trump tweeted.
While Schiff did not repeat the detailed summary of the call released by the White House last week verbatim, the congressman made clear during the hearing that his remarks were "the essence" of what Trump was saying during the call.
Trump's attacks and tweets about a possible civil war if he were impeached drew scorn and derision from both sides on Twitter, with #CivilWarSignup, #CivilWarPotluck and #TrumpsCivilWarLetters trending at the number one spot Monday morning.