WATCH: Adam Schiff Reacts to Republican Attacks on the Justice Department on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House
Washington D.C. — Today, Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined MSNBC’s Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace to react to House Republicans' attacking Attorney General Merrick Garland during today’s Judiciary Committee hearing and using the committee for former President Donald Trump’s legal defense.
Watch the full interview here.
Key Excerpts:
On the fact-free arguments by the GOP in defense of Donald Trump:
[...] I couldn't help escape the conclusion that the alternate fact world ushered in by the Trump Administration is alive and well in Jim Jordan's Judiciary Committee. The facts seem to have no bearing on the arguments that they make. There was a lot of grandstanding and not letting the Attorney General even have a chance to respond to what was reportedly being asked. But it just goes to show how little regard the members of the committee on the GOP side have for the truth, for facts, for our democracy, for the rule of law.
On the GOP’s hypocritical outrage against the Department of Justice:
They're willing to use the committee to undermine these prosecutions of Donald Trump, to interfere with them in any way they can. And they're also pushing out false information about the prosecution of Hunter Biden. And you know, as I tried to bring out during the hearing, imagine the hue and cry — the outrage, if Merrick Garland had removed the Trump appointed prosecutor overseeing the case against Hunter Biden and replaced him with someone else. They would have been incensed. But of course, he didn't do that, he did the right thing. And nonetheless, they remained incensed. And why? Because it has nothing to do with facts. It has to do with the fictional world they want to create around Donald Trump to try to protect him and try to preserve their ability to hold power.
On the dangerous parallels between Republicans’ and violent extremists’ rhetoric:
[...] There is this very destructive, dangerous synchronicity between the false claims that are made online — often that are associated with violence, and violent extremism — and what you hear from the Republicans in Congress. The false claims about January 6, the continuing effort to rewrite history about that dark period of our history here on the Hill. And as I've seen personally, when you have that kind of conspiratorial thinking online it often turns out to manifest itself in very real threats in the real world. So it's dangerous.
Full Transcript:
Schiff in clip: The chairman would abuse the power of this committee by trying to interfere in the prosecutions of Donald Trump, by trying to use the committee's power of subpoena to compel criminal discovery — in effect, making the committee a kind of criminal defense firm for the former president. In doing so, the chairman of this committee would establish a very different proposition. Through Mr. Jordan's actions, he would establish the principle that the rule of law should apply to almost everyone, just not the leader of his party.
Wallace: That was California Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, a member of the Judiciary Committee, calling out the facts as they really are about Chairman Jim Jordan for his attempts today to undermine Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice's investigations into the ex-president. Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff is with us, a member of the House Judiciary Committee. He's also a candidate for Senate in California. Congressman, that was a powerful moment, not just from you, but of the whole hearing. Take me through what it was like to sit through this.
Schiff: Well, I couldn't help escape the conclusion that the alternate fact world ushered in by the Trump Administration is alive and well in Jim Jordan's Judiciary Committee. The facts seem to have no bearing on the arguments that they make. There was a lot of grandstanding and not letting the Attorney General even have a chance to respond to what was reportedly being asked. But it just goes to show how little regard the members of the committee on the GOP side have for the truth, for facts, for our democracy, for the rule of law. They're willing to use the committee to undermine these prosecutions of Donald Trump, to interfere with them in any way they can. And they're also pushing out false information about the prosecution of Hunter Biden. And you know, as I tried to bring out during the hearing, imagine the hue and cry — the outrage, if Merrick Garland had removed the Trump appointed prosecutor overseeing the case against Hunter Biden and replaced him with someone else. They would have been incensed. But of course, he didn't do that, he did the right thing. And nonetheless, they remained incensed. And why? Because it has nothing to do with facts. It has to do with the fictional world they want to create around Donald Trump to try to protect him and try to preserve their ability to hold power.
Wallace: Congressman, Mary McCord, former senior Justice Department national security official just said that there's a lot of synchronicity between the content and the substance of what the Republican members alluded to, and the conspiracies and the substance and content that she sees on domestic violent extremist sites – the same conspiracies about what you're talking about the Hunter Biden investigation, about January 6th being a fake government production, about the Trump investigations. I wonder if you could give me your expert analysis of which side is winning — the truth of the falsehoods?
Schiff: Well, I have confidence the truth is winning. But it is kind of a brutal test of that idea, that proposition. Because you’re right, there is this very destructive, dangerous synchronicity between the false claims that are made online — often that are associated with violence, and violent extremism — and what you hear from the Republicans in Congress. The false claims about January 6, the continuing effort to rewrite history about that dark period of our history here on the Hill. And as I've seen personally, when you have that kind of conspiratorial thinking online it often turns out to manifest itself in very real threats in the real world. So it's dangerous. But I have confidence, ultimately the American people will see through this. This is part of what I was underscoring today — there are two propositions being tested. One that the rule of law applies in the United States of America to everyone, and a different proposition that, essentially, you can fool the American people and you can fool them completely and the rule of law is inconsequential. I think those that have such little confidence in America will be proven wrong again, they always are.
Wallace: I am intrigued and tantalized by your optimism, and I'll let it be the last word on that question. I do want to ask you about threats because that came up and that seemed to animate Attorney General Merrick Garland the most. The idea that he is now leading a workforce under threat of violent attacks, because of these lies that were peddled to his face. The shamelessness really is staggering, that they were in there in a hearing in front of the Attorney General himself, peddling what had to be known falsehoods to his face, knowing that the cameras were rolling. You're someone who's been targeted by Donald Trump. I won't repeat, but I remember some of the harsh and brutal and personal insults and attacks against you. And I wonder what you thought, if that was triggering? Or if you have words of wisdom for this DOJ workforce, an FBI workforce now under unprecedented threat?
Schiff: Well, we have seen a dangerous level of acceptance of the idea of political violence, which never was something people contemplated, I think, in this country. But I have all too much empathy for what the Attorney General was talking about today, because you see prosecutors under threat, you see grand jurors being threatened. You see judges being threatened. And sadly, I think the members of Congress understand only too well, this is the consequence of the falsehoods they are peddling. It is putting people's lives at risk. It's putting our very democracy at risk. And it just doesn't matter enough to them, which is really quite shocking. And they should know better, because they're — many of them are the subject of threats themselves. And so they ought to understand the consequences of their words and actions. But, I was proud of what the Attorney General said today, I was proud of the way he conducted himself. He is, I think, speaking for the many tens of thousands of hard working people in the Department of Justice, at the FBI, who continue to soldier on in the face of these threats, doing their jobs, doing their duty. And I think American citizens who will be called on for these juries will likewise do their duty, but it shouldn't be as hard as they're making it.
Wallace: Congressman Adam Schiff, thank you for spending time with us on an extraordinary day up there on Capitol Hill.
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