CNN "State of the Union" - Transcript: Interview With California Congressman Adam Schiff

Interview

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TAPPER: All right, Jessica Dean, thanks so much.

And as soon as they start that press conference, we will bring it to you live.

But, until then, here with me in studio is Congressman Adam Schiff, Democrat of California. He's the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee. He has been outspoken about rising anti- Semitism around the world.

You also happen to be Jewish, I should point out, as am I.

You're the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Have you been briefed on this shooting? And what can you tell us about motive, beyond the obvious that this was an anti-Semite filled with rage, based on his social media posts?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: I have had only preliminary briefings.

And I don't have that much to add, beyond what the public already knows. I think, clearly, these were acts of hate motivated by anti- Semitism.

Certainly, the social media posts are probably the best window into where the shooter was coming from. And they're bile-filled, and there are frequent references to anti-Semitic slurs and different tropes about Jews and Jewish complicity, as this shooter, in his bigoted mind, saw it, and bringing people, invaders into the country.

[09:05:10]

So, it certainly looks like his motivation is pretty clear.

TAPPER: The president condemn the shooting, and he condemned anti- Semitism in stark terms at an event in Indianapolis yesterday.

How do you feel about how the president has handled this specific tragedy? Are you satisfied? Has he done what he needs to do?

SCHIFF: The problem is not how he is handling the aftermath, although I certainly don't agree with his suggestion that this could have been avoided or mitigated if they'd had someone armed in the synagogue. That's not the answer.

The broader issue is what kind of climate are we creating in the country? This country is filled with amazing, beautiful, wonderful people who came here, many of them attracted by the idea this was a land of opportunity, no matter your religion, your ethnic origin, your color. That ideas being tested. by those who are preaching hatred and division. And we have to overcome that. And I think the president has a pivotal role there. No one sets the tone more than the president of the United States.

And the tone that he sets is one of division, often one of hatred, sometimes one of incitement to violence against journalists. And there's no escaping our collective responsibility.

But there's no escaping the tone that he sets for the country. The Constitution contemplates a president that tries to make us a more perfect union. And the president has his own constitution in here that doesn't allow him to do that. And that's not going to change.

I think it's going to fall on all the rest of us to try to make this a more perfect union, to bring people together, to accentuate our common humanity, and not these ancient hatreds, and not giving birth to new hatreds. That's going to fall on all of us.

And I think we're up to the challenge.

TAPPER: Now, that's a -- that's a general criticism of President Trump.

When it comes to the specifics of this anti-Semite, the shooter, his social media posts indicated that he was not a Trump supporter. He thought Trump was controlled by kikes, a derogatory term for Jews, that he was too controlled by Jews, that he wasn't legit.

And as long as the United States was infested with kikes, he wrote, MAGA would never happen.

So, the president had pointed to that and said, this guy was not a supporter of mine.

SCHIFF: You know, none of these acts of hatred are going to be identical.

You had, as you pointed out, someone go attempt to get into an African-American church, shoot people, and shot two African-Americans in a store instead.

You had these bombs that were sent around to the president's critics and opponents. And you had someone who went into this synagogue filled with the idea that Jews were behind this caravan, something that has been pushed out in social media.

And so you're never going to find all of these are exactly the same. But, nonetheless, what is the same is, are we part of the solution? Are we part of trying to make us a more perfect union? Are we trying to accentuate what brings us together, what unites us? Or are we preaching hatred and division?

And, honestly, I think this president's whole modus operandi is to divide us. He gets up in the morning with new and inventive ways to divide us. And it's not enough that, on the day of a tragedy, he says the right words, if every other day of the year he's saying things to bring us into conflict with each other.

TAPPER: George Soros is a billionaire financier. He's Jewish. He's a funder of a lot of progressive causes.

Somebody who's in the political arena certainly opens themselves up to criticism. Do you think all the criticism coming from the right about George Soros, all of it is anti-Semitic, some of it? How do you view it?

SCHIFF: Well, I don't know that I could say all of it. Some may have a -- have an issue with George Soros' Open Society organization or foundation.

But I think much of it, most of it...

TAPPER: We have to go to the press conference. We will come back to yes, Congressman Schiff.

SCHIFF: Yes.

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TAPPER: All right, as the press conference ends, we are left with the words of the Pittsburgh Mayor, Bill Peduto, pleading for unity at this time of tragedy.

Two notes of news. We did hear from the FBI special agent in charge that they do not think that the shooter at the Tree of Life Synagogue had any accomplices. We're also told by the U.S. attorney in Allegheny County in the Western District of Pennsylvania that they are treating this as a hate crime.

So, that is the news out of that incident, out of that press conference, in addition to the list of names of the 11 victims.

I'm back here in Washington with Congressman Adam Schiff.

And, first of all, Congressman Schiff, is there anything that struck you from that? I will just share with you one thing that struck me is that one of the

victims was 97. I believe her name was Ruth Margoles (sic) or Ruth Margoles (sic). And she was 97 years old, which means that this is a woman who had memories -- she was born in the early '20s -- memories of the Holocaust.

And pretty amazing and horrific that she was killed for being a Jew right here in the United States.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: I was really moved by the mayor's concluding remarks, that they're hearing in Pittsburgh an outpouring of support from people all over the world that are putting forward a positive message, that we're all the same, that we're all one people, that we have got to put aside these -- these ancient hatreds and unite around what brings us together.

And it's encouraging that that is the dominant message coming out of this horror, this nightmare. And I think that's what's going to get us through this, this chapter of our history.

TAPPER: Well, let me ask you, because your fellow California Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, has been really criticized in the last few days for a tweet he put out earlier this week that said -- if we can put it up on the screen -- "We cannot allow Soros, Steyer, and Bloomberg to buy this election. Get out and vote Republican November 6. Make America great again."

[09:40:07]

In point of fact, Soros is Jewish, Bloomberg is Jewish, Tom Steyer's father was Jewish.

He has since deleted the tweet, but what did you make of that?

SCHIFF: I don't know what to make of that, except -- and you asked me about this before the news conference. You know, these attacks particularly on Soros are driven largely by his Jewish faith.

There are a lot of people are generous to the Democratic Party. The fact that he's become a symbol is not an accident. The fact that they're promulgating this falsehood that he's funding the caravan is an effort to give rebirth to this blood libel, that Jews are bringing impurity to the country, they're bringing other people to dilute the purity of the country.

It's an ancient hatred. And it's no accident that they have made George Soros the symbol of this. And you do see people, from the president on down, playing on this, candidates around the country playing on this.

There's a reason why anti-Semitism, according to ADL, we have seen 50 percent more acts of anti-Semitism last year than before, unprecedented expansion, explosion of anti-Semitism. Doesn't happen of its own.

It happens because it's fed. And what will be necessary to overcome it is what the mayor was talking about. And that is, these are still a minority of repugnant voices, and they have to be drowned out by our common goodness.

TAPPER: All right, Congressman Adam Schiff, thank you so much for your time on this horrible day. Appreciate it.

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