Chairman Schiff on CBS Face the Nation: Trump Should Never Receive Another Intelligence Briefing
Washington, DC – Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, appeared on CBS Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan to discuss the intelligence concerns surrounding the attack at the U.S. Capitol and the second impeachment of President Donald J. Trump. On the current threat level at the U.S. Capitol: There is a profound threat from domestic violent extremists of the nature we saw on January 6th…I think the inauguration will proceed, and it will proceed safely, but there will be gatherings of individuals and those gatherings could turn violent. So there is a very high level of risk. On the investigation into the attack on January 6th: Along with my fellow Chairs, we are beginning an investigation into what went wrong…There is a massive intelligence and security failure here that needs to be fully investigated, and we hope to get answers to these questions. The particular lane I’m focused on is the intelligence. What did we know before the attack, the likelihood of violence against the Capitol that day? Was that intelligence disseminated? If it was, why wasn’t it made use of? We’re also going to be examining the Capitol Police and its structure and its leadership and what changes need to be made there. On President Trump’s access to intelligence: There is no circumstance in which this president should get another intelligence briefing, not now and not in the future. Indeed, there were, I think, any number of intelligence partners around the world who probably started withholding information from us because they didn’t trust the president would safeguard that information, and protect their sources and methods. And that makes us less safe. We've seen this president politicize intelligence, and that's another risk to the country. On reports of the Trump administration installing of a GOP operative at the National Security Agency: I think it's very clear this is part of the administration's effort to embed people in the civil service who are political and partisan actors who don't belong there. In this case, Michael Ellis was mentioned in one of the articles of impeachment. He was involved in the midnight run. He was involved in putting that Ukraine call record in a secure computer system where it didn't belong to try to conceal that evidence. There's no way that someone like Michael Ellis should be confirmed or appointed or hired for a career civil service position, particularly if there were other applicants, which there were, that were more highly rated. On the timeline of impeachment: That is the Speaker’s decision, I leave the strategy to her and Jamie Raskin, and an incredibly talented team. This is obviously the most serious crime against our country and Constitution of any president in history and the fact that it took place in the last month doesn’t make it any less serious. There needs to be full accountability and I hope and pray the Senate will fulfill their duty and their oath when that case is tried. |
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