CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript:

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

BRENNAN: Kellyanne, we have to leave that -- we have to leave it here, unfortunately, Kellyanne.

But I do want to get to some of the other topics we touched on with our next guest. So thank you.

We're going to bring in California's Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who joins us from Portland, Oregon, this morning.

Congressman Schiff, some of the investigations, or lack thereof, were just laid out by Kellyanne Conway from the White House. I want to give you a chance to respond to criticism that she has leveled in terms of congressional investigations.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, look, I think it was a broad effort to distract from the president's comments.

And, as you pointed out, Margaret, the president can't distinguish between any allegations of conspiracy against his campaign and the broader problem of Russia continuing to interfere in our elections.

Dan Coats said this week that Russian efforts are pervasive in terms of their social media campaign to divide us. That's going to continue to the election. We see that the Russians are again trying to spear-phish and potentially hack election campaigns.

The only element we have not seen to date, as Director Wray said, is the hacking of voter registration databases or voter equipment. But, as our intelligence chief said, that's just one keystroke away.

And probably the biggest thing that the president could do is confront Moscow to establish some kind of deterrent, but, instead, exactly the opposite message is being sent. And that is -- and I think this was delivered in Helsinki -- as long as the Russians interfere on Donald Trump's side in the midterms, Vladimir Putin can count on the president to never call him out.

And that leaves us all too vulnerable.

BRENNAN: Congressman, before we go any farther, because I want to draw a distinction. Since we have been saying here that some of the facts can get muddled here in the president's language, I want to make sure we're being precise in our conversation.

Can you agree that there has been no evidence of collusion, coordination or conspiracy that has been presented thus far between the Trump campaign and Russia?

SCHIFF: No, I don't agree with that at all.

I think there's plenty of evidence of collusion or conspiracy in plain sight. Now, that's a different statement than saying that there's proof beyond a reasonable doubt of a criminal conspiracy. Bob Mueller will have to determine that.

But, of course, the entire meeting at Trump Tower...

BRENNAN: Right. So, you acknowledge that the FBI has not presented it thus far?

SCHIFF: No, what -- Margaret...

BRENNAN: I'm drawing this distinction because this is what the White House is arguing here, that the president is drawing a distinction, that he is saying, when he says hoax and witch-hunt, that he means one thing, and that it's not really trying to disassociate himself from what his national security team says.

SCHIFF: Well, first of all, we haven't seen what Bob Mueller has produced in terms of the evidence yet. So in terms of FBI proof, they're not going to present proof to the Congress. We're doing our own investigation.

And we have revealed evidence, I think, that certainly goes to the issue of conspiracy and collusion, a lot of which is now public.

But I do think that the president continues to cast doubt on whether he accepts the fundamental conclusion that Russia intervened, whether there was a conspiracy or not. He continues to raise questions about it. Indeed, his attempt to retract his statement in Helsinki that he doesn't see why the Russians would intervene, that goes well beyond any allegations of conspiracy.

So it's the president himself who's created this very muddled message. And the issue, I think, for us in the midterms is, what message is Putin hearing? Is he hearing the message that we heard from Coats and Wray and others in that press conference at the White House, or is hearing the message of the president of the United States?

And I fear that the message that the Kremlin cares most about is what they hear from Donald Trump, and that is still one of denial and cover for the Russians.

BRENNAN: Is the DNC better prepared for these November races than they were in 2016?

SCHIFF: I'm sure that DNC is better prepared. And I would imagine the RNC is better prepared and the states are better prepared.

But there's still a great deal more work to do. And I think the states still don't have the resources that they need. And, sadly, we did have a vote in Congress on additional funding for the states, and that was voted down by the GOP.

But, yes, they certainly have taken steps.

And, Margaret, I will say this. One thing that encourages me, the administration is finally having interagency task force meetings every week, led by the DNI's office, to make sure that our government agencies are talking to each other.

But the fact that many of us even in leadership positions in the Congress had to learn about the Russian efforts to hack particular campaigns this cycle from a Microsoft representative speaking publicly in Aspen causes a lot of concern about whether that interagency process is really working.

BRENNAN: And you are talking about Microsoft disclosing that.

I also want to ask you about what the special counsel disclosed a few weeks back, where, in that filing, he mentioned that there were congressional candidates, at least one of them, who was requesting help from Guccifer, which has been linked, of course, by the special counsel to the Russian meddling effort.

Do you have any indication who that congressional candidate was or if they are currently in Congress?

SCHIFF: Well, I can only talk about the public reporting.

And there certainly was a lot of public reporting about Russian hacking involving Florida candidates for Congress and Florida incumbents. And, of course, this is a great concern in terms of the midterms. They not only hacked the DNC, but they hacked the DCCC two years ago.

We tried to get the Republican Campaign Committee to agree that, if a foreign power intervened, as they did in 2016, that we would reject it, that neither party would exploit it. We weren't able to get that agreement from the GOP in 2016.

We really need to develop that kind of national consensus for the midterms, that no matter who a foreign power may intervene on behalf of, both parties have to agree not to exploit it. And I think one of the chief impediments to getting to that agreement is the president of the United States.

BRENNAN: You, I know, have been traveling the country helping to raise money for Democrats, successfully, I hear, more than $3.5 million so far.

When you are speaking across the country, do you talk about the Russia probe, and do you advise those who are running for office to be speaking about it publicly?

SCHIFF: I don't advise people running for office around the country to focus on the Russia investigation. I urge them to focus on what they're going to do to put bread on the table, what they're going to do to make sure their Constituents have health care.

I certainly get questions about it when I travel around the country. And the overarching point that I try to make is, what the Russians did was not in isolation. The Russians, yes, they intervened. They had a preferred candidate in our election. But they have been interfering in Europe and elsewhere for a long time.

And it is part of a global attack on the very idea of liberal democracy, and comes at a time where we see a real rise of autocrats around the world. And America needs once again to be the champion of democracy and human rights.

And that's the context I always try to emphasize. This is much bigger than the last election or even the next election. There is a real risk to the very idea of liberal democracy right now in the world.

BRENNAN: But does it give you pause when you hear the allegations that this is viewed as a witch-hunt? When you are campaigning and fund-raising, does it give you pause to speak about this probe, at risk of giving fodder to that argument?

SCHIFF: Well, I certainly, I think, feel a public responsibility, as I do on television, as well as when I do in private, to try to inform the public about what Russia is doing, the risk it poses to our democracy.

But also, Margaret, I, frankly, talk a lot more about the risk to our democracy from this administration, in a lot of what you talked about with Kellyanne Conway. And that is, I think we're seeing the most comprehensive attack on the freedom of the press in the United States in memory.

I think we're seeing an effort to undermine the independence of our Justice Department, to denigrate our judiciary. I talk a lot more on the campaign trail about the threat to our democracy from within than anything that the Russians are capable of doing.

BRENNAN: Congressman, thank you for joining us this morning.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source