“Rep. Adam Schiff acknowledged on Thursday that he made up parts of the Ukraine phone call transcript when he delivered his opening statement at a much-watched TV hearing with the U.S. top intelligence officer,” reports The Washington Times. That’s right; at a time when Democrats are pounding on the table for impeaching the president, and during a hearing grilling acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is spouting utter fiction as justification.

Schiff argued that the record of President Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “reads like a classic organized-crime shakedown.” Actually, Schiff’s characterization is more like B-movie acting. “Shorn of its rambling character and in not so many words, this is the essence of what the president communicates,” Schiff said. He went on to parody the call while effectively insinuating that he was quoting Trump from the transcript: “We’ve been very good to your country, very good. No other country has done as much as we have, but you know what, I don’t see much reciprocity here. 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.”

Concluded Schiff, “It would be funny if it wasn’t such a graphic betrayal of the president’s oath of office.” Democrats violate their oaths daily, so forgive us if we reject his assertion.

More to the point, we’d add, Schiff’s little skit wasn’t funny at all, but that’s because it was a brazen lie. It bore absolutely no resemblance to the record of Trump’s conversation, though Schiff was certainly hoping low-information viewers who hadn’t read the transcript would buy his spin. On the other hand, Schiff’s fakery is actually a better representation of Democrat impeachment efforts, a bad movie we’ve seen before.

Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy notes, “[This was] a telling decision by Schiff, a capable former prosecutor: If you have an extortionate conversation, you quote it. If you need to imagine it into something it isn’t, that means it is not an extortionate conversation.”

Likewise, veteran journalist Brit Hume observed, “If the conversation were as damning as Schiff et al would like, he would have simply read directly from it, instead of making up dialogue.” But Hume admitted it was at least consistent with Schiff’s modus operandi: “Probably not surprising in light of the extravagant collusion claims he made for 2 years.” Schiff has been one of the most vocal Democrats over the last two years when it comes to the hoax of Russian collusion, so indeed it’s no wonder that he’d lead the stampede on Collusion 2.0.