This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

Donald Trump's enemies list is long and it's wide.

Journalists, pop stars, late night hosts, even his own architect

apparently for the White House ballroom. And of course, Democrats, pretty much all of them at one

time or another, but few public figures infuriate Donald Trump more than California Senator

Adam Schiff. I would just say,

Adam Schiff is one of the lowest forms of scum

I've ever dealt with in politics.

He's a horrible human being, a very dishonest person.

The administration announced an investigation of Schiff

for mortgage fraud not long ago,

and now confusingly, the Justice Department

is investigating the handling of that investigation. So what did Adam Schiff do to get that

prominent place on the enemy's list? When he was a congressman from a district around Los Angeles,

Schiff was a leader of the first impeachment proceeding. You remember what

that was. That was all about Trump's so-called perfect phone call with Ukrainian officials when he

asked them to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden. And later, Adam Schiff was a member of the House

Committee that investigated the January 6th insurrection. And that inquiry brought much to light about Trump's

role in those events. So Adam Schiff has been one of Trump's most persistent critics when it

comes to the rule of law, and Trump, as a way of rewarding him, expresses his disdain by calling him

pencil neck, watermelon head, and of course, Shifty Shiff.

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