CNN "The Lead With Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Congressman Adam Schiff of California

Interview

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TAPPER: Jessica Schneider, thanks so much.

And joining me now is Democratic Representative Adam Schiff of California. He's poised to be the next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Soon to be Mr. Chairman, thanks for joining us.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: My pleasure. Thank you.

So, I want to start with the new CNN reporting that Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker has no intention of recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation.

Listen to what he said about Mueller's appointment on a radio show last year.

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TAPPER: I think it smells a little fishy. Your response, sir?

SCHIFF: Well, look, this is why if he doesn't recuse himself that any decision he makes in the Mueller investigation is going to have a taint about it. It's going to cause a profound question among the public about whether these decisions are being made by the new attorney general, acting attorney general in the interest of justice or purely in Donald Trump's legal liability interests.

This is exactly why he ought to recuse himself, and one question that we have here in Congress right now is, did he, was he forced somehow to make a commitment to the president to ignore the advice of ethics lawyers at the Justice Department or not seek out their advice? Was that part of his getting the job because this president is guided by one thing alone and that's what's good for Donald Trump? The country doesn't matter that much.

TAPPER: If President Trump ultimately takes any action that results in Mueller being fired, whether it's by Whitaker or some other way, what action will the Democratic controlled House of Representatives take?

SCHIFF: Well, one of our first actions even in the minority has been to send out preservation letters now to the administration to make sure they preserve all evidence. But if the president effectively undermines the rule of law and causes the special counsel to be fired or an abrupt or partisan end to this investigation, then it will fall on Congress to find out the facts itself, to get those facts from the Justice Department, to continue our own investigation so that we can tell the country exactly what happened, and we can hold people accountable if they take any unlawful act of obstruction of justice.

[16:25:08] So, there are remedies that we will have and exposure is probably among the most powerful.

TAPPER: You're likely going to be chairing the House Intelligence Committee come January. You've hint that had you might reopen the committee's Russia investigation and interview individuals that the Republicans on the commit were not willing to do so. Who are some of the names on the list?

SCHIFF: Well, look, you know, what happened actually six months ago when the Republicans walked away from the investigation is they decided to focus all of their efforts on investigating the investigators, on harassing the Justice Department and the FBI, and basically do the bidding of the president.

We've continued, Jake, to do the investigation. We've continued to bring witnesses in. That won't change when we take the majority. It will just be that much easier because we can compel people that have been unwilling to voluntarily cooperate.

I don't want to go through the list of witnesses. We're going to look at what work we were able to do, what work we were prevented from doing and it may be that when we do get the gavel in January that we already have the advantage of a report from Bob Mueller or subsequent indictments that will help guide us in terms of what work remains to be done.

TAPPER: President Trump said on twitter and then he reiterated at his press conference yesterday that if the House Democrats with new subpoena power investigate him, he could have you all investigated as well. What's your response?

SCHIFF: Well, look, that sounds like if he's talking about using the Justice Department in order to do his bidding, another violation of the rule of law. If he's talking about having the Senate do it, I don't know what exactly he's referring to, but he's been on a war footing with Democrats from the very beginning. This is the first president who has made no effort to reach out to the other party, no effort to find common ground, who seems to get up every morning to find new and inventive ways to divide us certainly along lines of party but also race and ethnic origin and everything else, so he's been on a war foot.

We're going to try to work with him where he can on issues like infrastructure, if he has any genuine interest in it. We would welcome that, but we will not be intimidated into holding back in any way from our constitutional obligation to do oversight, and the fact that this hasn't happened until now, the president has been able to get used to a Congress that would simply do his will and look away at any allegation of malfeasance or corruption. Those days are gone and the sooner he realizes that, the better. We're going to do our jobs and he needs to do his.

TAPPER: You were very critical of the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence chairman Devin Nunes for not running the committee in the traditional way it's been run for decades, a bipartisan way. Do you plan to return to the previous model of bipartisanship and making sure all actions taken by the committee are done hand in hand by Republicans? Or are you going to do what you want to do regardless of what Devin Nunes and the Republicans on the committee want?

SCHIFF: We're certainly not going to be running the committee the way the Republicans did. And in fact, where we had a rapture was with the chairman's midnight run and that whole saga. You can't run an independent investigation if you're essentially working cahoots with the subject of the investigation.

So, we're going to try to return to regular order. We'll continue the non-partisan tradition of the committee. Of course, we're going to need a willing partner on the other side and it remains to be seen whether they will adapt a different tactic in the minority than they did in the majority, but we have no interest or intention to be punitive or try to exact retribution.

I would love to see us restore comity on the committee, and more than that restore the confidence of the intelligence community in the committee which was squandered when the Nunes memorandum was published and the majority selectively declassified information. That was a terrible breach of our contract with the intelligence community.

TAPPER: All right. Soon to be chairman Adam Schiff, thank you so much. Appreciate it, sir.

SCHIFF: Thanks, Jake.

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