NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Adam Schiff

Interview

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CHUCK TODD:

Welcome back. Turning now to the investigations of the Trump administration. In our NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, we asked people whether they support Democrats providing more oversight by opening up new investigations of President Trump and his administration.

Overall, 55% said, "Yes," while 42% said, "No." Take a look at the party breakdown. It won't surprise you. It was by a margin of 88 to ten that Democrats said, "Yes." They support more investigations. Among Republicans, the result was, essentially, flipped. Only 18% said, "Yes," while 81% are opposed. For what it's worth, independents looked like the mix of the two, with a majority wanting more investigations. Joining me now is the man who will lead the House Intelligence Committee in the next Congress. It's Democrat Adam Schiff of California. Welcome back to Meet the Press, sir.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

Thank you.

CHUCK TODD:

Let me start with an interview you gave to the New Yorker. The headline over it was, "Adam Schiff's Plans to Obliterate Trump's Red Line." Now, the reference was to -- the president had famously said, "If they go into my businesses," if Mueller, at the time, "goes into my personal businesses before the campaign, that would be a red line. That's too much," the implication being, maybe, he'd fire him or something else. What does that headline mean, in practice, that you're going to obliterate the red line?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

Well, obliterate was not my choice of words.

CHUCK TODD:

Fair enough.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

But what it means is this. What ought to concern us the most, from an oversight point of view, is, is there any entanglement with a foreign power that might influence U.S. policy against our national interest? And what we saw, in the Michael Cohen revelations, some of the Michael Cohen revelations, that the president, while he was denying any dealings with Russia, his business, actually, was pursuing a multi-multi-million-dollar deal in Moscow, hiding it from the country, seeking the Kremlin's help with it.That's deeply compromising. Now, the president has wanted to draw and red line and say, "You can't look at my business." But if the president's business is trying to curry favor with the Kremlin, we can't ignore that. And the president should not be in a position to say, "You can't investigate certain things, only other things, that I don't care as much about." So that's what I mean. If Mueller is not looking into this, and I don't know whether he is, someone needs to. Because otherwise, we are being derelict with our security.

CHUCK TODD:

What U.S. policies do you believe have already been influenced by -- that you fear, might've been influenced by financial dealings with the president?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

Well, unquestionably, the U.S. response to the Russian hacking of our election has been influenced by something. Whether it's been influenced by the president being concerned that his effort to build the Trump Tower deal would come out, because of course, the Russians knew about it. They were on the other end of that transaction. Dmitry Peskov was involved in the cover-up of that. Whether that was the motivation, or whether there's other motivation, or whether it's simply Donald Trump reacting to the question that's been raised about his legitimacy, because of the taint over the election, I don't know. But we, we need to find out.

CHUCK TODD:

Does Saudi Arabia fit into that, in your mind? And is that something you plan on investigating, as well?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

Well, Saudi Arabia certainly could fit into it. If the Saudis were funneling money into the inauguration committee, or the Saudi investment in the Trump businesses, buying hotel rooms, the deals that Trump talked about during the campaign that made him love the Saudis so much, if that's warping U.S. policy, if it's affecting the president's unwillingness to criticize the crown prince over the murder of Khashoggi, then we need to know about it. Now, some of this may be the purview of our committee. Some of it will be the purview of other committees. We will be working amongst ourselves to make sure that we don't step on each other's toes, and that we work in a coordinated way.

CHUCK TODD:

What do you believe the Deutsche Bank financial records are going to show you? Because that's one of the things -- this is a bank that the Trump Organization did some work with. Why them? What will their records show?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

Well, the concern about Deutsche Bank is that they have a history of laundering Russian money. They paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines to the state of New York, because they were laundering Russian money. And this, apparently, was the one bank that was willing to do business with the Trump Organization. Now, is that a coincidence? What do we make of what the president's sons are reported to have said about not needing to deal with U.S. banks, because they've got all the cash they needed from Russia, or a disproportionate share of their assets coming from Russia? If this is a form of compromise, it needs to be exposed.

CHUCK TODD:

You have -- Gina Haspel, the director of the C.I.A., gave -- has now given a briefing to, I believe, the House leaders, I believe, the Intelligence Committee. I assume you now have been briefed on this. What you have now learned, we've heard, you know, Bob Corker essentially said, "If a jury heard what I heard, he'd," MBS, the crown prince there, "would be convicted in 30 minutes." Is that a fair read of what you learned in your briefing?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

I don't think there's any question that the crown prince was aware and knowing and would have had to approve and operation like this. And so what concerns me is, when I hear people, like the secretary of state, say things that may be literally true but are deeply misleading. These are important issues, as they affect the policy of the United States. Policymakers, like the House and Senate, need to make decisions on the best intelligence. And I think you saw, by that overwhelming, unanimous vote in the Senate, that senators are convinced, and rightly so, of the crown prince's role in this.

CHUCK TODD:

But should we intervene in Saudi politics and, basically, push the king to dump the crown prince?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

What we ought to do, and here's where we really need to rely on our intelligence agencies, is we need to go through a menu of, what are the responses here, everything from using Magnitsky-Act sanctions against the crown prince, to suspending arms sales, to suspending any support of the war in Yemen. We need to get our intelligence agencies' best estimate. What will the Saudi reaction be? If the crown prince were to fall, who comes next? What does that mean, in terms of our interest in the region?

CHUCK TODD:

You're in a little bit of a go-slow approach.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

Well, my, you know, my feeling is, you use the best intelligence. You don't ignore it. You don't discount it. You don't publically disavow it. You use it to guide your decision making. And there is still a need to have a relationship with the kingdom. It ought to be governed, though, by the facts.

CHUCK TODD:

A couple things, the last time you were here, you talked about -- you were looking at other transcripts of people that gave interviews to the House Intelligence Committee and, basically, see if you were lied to. Have you found some instances that you think are questionable? And have you referred it to Mr. Mueller?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

We have found testimony that we find deeply concerning. And it certainly would include Mr. Stone, among that group. It is my hope --

CHUCK TODD:

Roger Stone --

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

Yes.

CHUCK TODD:

-- is among -- you believe lied to Congress?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

I believe that there's ample reason to be concerned about his truthfulness. And I do think that, with respect to Mr. Stone and, perhaps, others, the special counsel is in a better position to determine the truth or falsity of that testimony, and that we ought to provide it to the special counsel.

CHUCK TODD:

Do you have a theory as to why Mike Flynn -- Michael Flynn's lawyers are attacking the F.B.I.?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

I do. Well, there are several witnesses now who are trying to have it both ways, in some degree. You've got Manafort, who was clearly double dealing, trying to get a deal -- a cooperation agreement with the government and a minimal sentence, at the same time, trying to get a pardon. Papadopoulos, the same way, pleads guilty, admits guilt, gets sentenced, but now, seems to be making a public case for a pardon. And I think, to a lesser degree, the same situation with Flynn.

CHUCK TODD:

You don't have a theory? You don't know what it is?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

Well, the theory is they want to cooperate and get the best deal from the government. At the same time, they want to leave themselves open to getting a pardon from Donald Trump.

CHUCK TODD:

All right. Adam Schiff, Democrat from California, incoming chair of the House Intelligence Committee, thanks for coming on and sharing your views, sir.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

Thank you.

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