MSNBC "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Adam Schiff

Interview

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O'DONNELL: We are joined now by congressman Adam Schiff. He is the  ranking member of the intelligence committee. He has just left the House  floor for his casting votes to join us for this.

Congressman Schiff, we have this breaking news report tonight from "the  Washington Post" indicating that President Trump has known since January  6th, 2017, "the New York Times" reports tonight that the President was  briefed in the real specifics how Vladimir Putin specifically ordered the  invasion, the attack on our election and that Donald Trump has known this  for a couple of weeks before he was inaugurated.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), RANKING MEMBER OF THE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE:  Lawrence, I'm permitted to comment specifically on what the President was  briefed and when he was given the briefing. But I can say this, as a  member of the gang of eight, I was certainly kept abreast of what the  Russians were doing in real-time during the election. I continued to get  briefings after the election during the period in which Donald Trump was in  the President elect. And it is not just the gang of eight members, the  candidate, the major Presidential candidates are going to get a briefing on  certain intelligence.

When they become the President elect, they are going to be given much more  specific intelligence and certainly when they become President, those  briefings are going to continue.

There is no way to claim that the President was unaware from the very  beginning of what the Russians were doing and even specific evidence of  what the Russians were doing. We indulge ourselves in this fiction somehow  that maybe this is a problem of Donald Trump not knowing but clearly, he  has been briefed time and time and time again. I would argue beginning as  the Republican nominee until the present day, he just can't accept it and  therein lies the problem.

O'DONNELL: And congressman, it seems that the problem for the President in  his strategy is that he wants to call the investigation that you have  engaged in a witch-hunt. He especially wants to call the special  prosecutor's investigation a witch-hunt but it can't be a witch-hunt if the  Russians actually did attack our election processes.

SCHIFF: Well, that's exactly right. You know, it's hard to escape the  conclusion there is some pathology at work here because of course, he would  have said yes the Russians did it. I acknowledge the Russians did it but  nonetheless, I don't believe it was determinative in the impact on the  election, even if it were, I deplore, et cetera.

He could have said all of that. All of that actually would have been in  his self-interest. But he is incapable of doing that. And the problem for  our country is that means the President of the United States will not,  cannot, isn't capable of accepting that the Russians interfered, that the  Russians are likely to interfere again, that he has a responsibility to the  country to do something to protect ourselves in the next election and this  just isn't happening.

O'DONNELL: And Congressman, this seems that tonight's news seems to put  all the more pressure on an idea that has been advanced by some Democratic  senators and some Democratic members of the House that the interpreter who  was present in the room with President Trump and President Putin should 
reveal her notes of that meeting and tell Congress in testimony everything that she can about what was said in that room?

SCHIFF: And I fully support that. And I never thought I would support a  stuff like that, frankly. There are policy reasons why a president should  be able to have private conversations with foreign leaders. But not under  this circumstance where the President demands that there would no --  effectively no witnesses where the President makes reference to commitments  that were under taken in that private meeting where in the public seating,  he under cuts our national interests and our intelligence agencies. And we  can only imagine what was said in private under these circumstances where  the President of the United States is (INAUDIBLE) working against our own  interest as a country, then yes, we have to fierce the vail of secrecy in  the meeting and we should haul in that interpreter to find out exactly what  happened.

O'DONNELL: And isn't it customary for interpreter's notes in meetings like  that to be and delivered in a mem-con (ph) a memorandum of conversation to  the secretary of state and then also a copied to the archives? I mean,  these notes in the past have found their way in that route, and not  consider in things that need to be kept secret forever.

SCHIFF: Well, I think that's exactly right. And these records really need  to preserved. And more than that, they need to be shared with Congress so  that we can determine what further steps we need to take to protect the  country, yes from Russian intervention, but also from a President that is  incapable of accepting what the Russians did and might do again.

So I think that is truly called for under this circumstance. I can tell  you this, Lawrence. The Russians would have no compunction about recording  this and using anything he said against the President of the United States.  I have to imagine that if our intelligence agencies ask the President  whether they could similarly record what took place, the President would  have said no. And I can't imagine the intelligence committee going forward  with recording to those conversations without the President's approval. So  here again, the President has given the Russians a unilateral advantage  over our country.

O'DONNELL: And the other intelligence experts have been saying today that  they firmly believe that Vladimir Putin has a recording of what went on in  the room. What does that mean for the President?

SCHIFF: Well, I think what that means is I would fully expect that our  intelligence community would have briefed the President going into the  private meeting that you have to fully expect the Russians are record  everything you say.

Now, it's one thing to advice the President of this. It is another thing  to expect him to actually act on that information. But the consequence is  if the President should do or say something that is either at odds with  what he said privately to Putin or just at odds with Russian interests to  the degree Putin decides he'll let the President have it. Then Putin is in  the possession of recordings of exactly what was said and can release them.  So it's more for conformant for the Russians.

O'DONNELL: Congressman Adam Schiff gets tonight's LAST WORD. Thank you  very much for joining us, congressman. Really appreciate it.

SCHIFF: Thank you.

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