Schiff invited on Trump California trip

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Friday that President Trump invited him and California’s other Democratic senator, Alex Padilla, on a visit to California amid the wildfires ravaging in Los Angeles — an offer Schiff said he turned down only because the Senate is voting on high-profile Trump nominees.

“A number of us invited him to come to the state and he reciprocated, inviting us to join him to go to these fire areas,” Schiff said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program.

“Regrettably, Sen. Padilla and I have votes today in the Senate, so we aren’t able to go,” he continued. “But I’m glad he’s going, and I’m glad that he’s going to see the devastation. Because I think, frankly, until you see it and the scope of it — whole neighborhoods gone block after block after block — it’s hard to wrap your head around.”

Shortly afterward, Trump acknowledged the invitation. But he also seemed to be confused over why it was offered, and he emphasized that it didn’t come from him directly, as Schiff suggested.

“I don’t know, is he going?” Trump asked reporters in Washington shortly before the trip. “I don’t know, I mean I really don’t. Because, if he was going to be there, it would be cheaper.

“But I didn’t invite him. Somebody did.”

Padilla’s office confirmed the invitation was also extended to California’s senior senator. But a spokesperson did not say precisely who delivered it.

“Senator Padilla was invited,” spokesperson Edgar Rodríguez said Friday morning. “The Senator regrets not being able to join President Trump in Los Angeles due to the Senate vote schedule. He welcomes the President’s support for federal disaster aid to assist the thousands of families and businesses impacted by these devastating fires.”

Still, the invitation — from whatever source in the White House — comes as something of a surprise, especially in the case of Schiff.

Trump and Schiff are bitter adversaries who have feuded sharply — and often publicly — since Trump’s arrival in Washington in 2017. It was Schiff, as then-chair of the House Intelligence Committee, who led the Democrats’ first impeachment of Trump in 2019. And the California Democrat also helped lead the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which found Trump singularly culpable for inciting the violence that day.

On Monday, just hours after he was sworn in for his second term, Trump revealed that he hasn’t forgotten that hostile history, referring to Schiff as “scum.”

Schiff has returned the rhetorical fire, bashing Trump’s pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters — a blanket clemency he adopted Monday — as “a sick betrayal of the rule of law.”

In the California wildfires, however, the rivals appear to have a shared adversary. Schiff and other California Democrats in the Senate and House had sent a Jan. 13 letter inviting Trump to gauge the devastation first-hand. And Schiff this week has cheered Trump’s decision to visit Los Angeles as one of the first trips of his second term.

“People that are affected by this are Democrats and Republicans — it really doesn’t matter how they vote,” Schiff told “Morning Joe.” “And this is a great opportunity to come together in the wake of this tragedy and show that we can work together — even while we may fight over other issues.”

That fight, however, might soon extend to help for the wildfires, as well.

While Democrats are pushing for a “clean” bill to provide emergency funding to victims of the disaster, Republicans are calling for “conditions” on that aid. And Trump has joined the GOP chorus, accusing California Democrats of prioritizing the protection of an obscure fish species over efforts to fight fires — a false claim that has nonetheless gained traction among Trump’s allies in the Capitol.

“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,” Trump said Wednesday in an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

Alex Gangitano contributed.

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