CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript Interview with Adam Schiff

Interview

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[17:32:44]

BLITZER: Joe Biden's acceptance speech now just hours away. Plenty to discuss with our next guest, the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. We're going to see Joe Biden accept the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, what's on the line when he gives us acceptance speech later tonight?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Well, I'm really looking forward to it. And, you know, this is a chance for the Vice President to speak directly to the American people. He'll have one of the largest audiences he's ever had. And I think that he needs to both project exactly who he is, which is the fundamental decency and character that he carries. And so such a profound contrast to the President.

But also appeal to people to get out and vote early. With all of the attacks on the Postal Service, with all the questions being raised by the President, then his effort to discredit the votes of millions. The Vice President needs to make the case that people really need to exercise that vote of the prospect of foundational right, in a democracy that people fought, bled and died for their own beloved John Lewis, devoted his career and life too. That is also an essential part of the Vice President's message tonight.

BLITZER: Last night, former President Obama as we all heard, delivered a very somber warning to the nation on the state of our democracy. Why do you think he decided to give that speech now, after years of reluctance to weigh in on the Trump presidency?

SCHIFF: Well, if you're right, it was extraordinary. It was not what I was expecting for the various you mentioned that he is really refrain from engaging Donald Trump. But I think he felt at this point that democracy was in such peril, that he needed to speak very plainly, the American people that kind of tradition of not criticizing your successor, had to go by the wayside when that successor was posing a real threat to our institutions.

And he was absolutely right in that devastating critique. The President is not up to the job. He is not growing in the job. He's not capable of leading. He's not interested in leading and the country during this pandemic, economic crisis at a time when people are really, you know, questioning what is America stands for, needs a new leader, someone like Joe Biden. And I think no one made that case more powerfully than Barack Obama.

[17:35:04]

BLITZER: Let's get to some other news that we're following today. The President's former Senior Adviser Steve Bannon, as you know, he just pled not guilty to charges. He defrauded hundreds of thousands of people who donated to a private effort to build the President's border wall siphoning off in the process, allegedly more than a million dollars for himself. So what's your reaction to these charges and President Trump's claim that he hasn't dealt with Bannon in the words of the President for a long period of time?

SCHIFF: Well, can any of us really be surprised? The President has surrounded himself with a den of thieves. The campaign chairman indicted and convicted, the deputy campaign chairman indicted and convicted. His National Security Adviser indicted, pled guilty repeatedly. His longtime political advisor strategist Roger Stone pled guilty, or was tried and convicted rather. And now the latest that his personal lawyer Michael Cohen also went to jail.

Donald Trump himself identified as individual, number one, in an indictment in New York. This is the kind of corrupt administration of Donald Trump. And the fact that they were just ripping off their own in effect with this wall scheme, you know, it shouldn't surprise people that is who they are. It's just a bunch of people out for themselves and consumed by graft of one kind or another. And, of course, the irony is, this is a President who claimed to drain the swamp when he has made it into a complete cesspool.

BLITZER: Also today, a federal judge, and you heard this, rejected President Trump's efforts to try to stop his tax returns from being handed over to the Manhattan district attorney. The President is appealing, but what implications potentially could this have for you guys, for House Democrats, your efforts to get the President's financial records, his tax returns, for example?

SCHIFF: Well, you know, I think it's certainly a very promising sign that the courts are doing what they should. They're maintaining an independent judgment as they need to, but also that we have a good opportunity to determine, are there conflicts of interest -- this is the Intel committee's interest -- are there conflicts of interest that are guiding or forcing U.S. policy in a direction that's not in our national security interests? Is the reason why the President can't criticize Putin won't stand up to him even when there's credible information about potential bounties on U.S. troops, because the President wants something financially or is indebted to someone financially?

We already know he wanted to build that Trump Tower in Moscow, he probably still wants to build it. So there's already political and economic compromise that we know of. But those tax returns and those Deutsche Bank records, may shed a lot more light on why the President is behaving the way he is, in a way that's not in U.S. national interest.

BLITZER: Yes, we'll see if those documents are made available to you before or after potentially the November 3rd election. Before I let you go, Congressman, the Postmaster General will be testifying tomorrow in the Senate next Monday in the House of Representatives on the changes he's made that are slowing down mail delivery throughout the United States right now. What questions does he immediately need to answer?

SCHIFF: Well, I think he needs to answer, are you going to put the sorting machines back? Are you going to restore these blue postal boxes more than they belong? Are you going to make sure that the Postal Service has the resources its needs? Are you going to advocate like your own Postal Commission for the 25 billion that the postal service needs? Or are you simply going to carry dirty water for the President?

I think he should step down, Wolf. He has conflicts of interest. He owns shares in competing shipping businesses. What's more -- the steps he's already taken have been destructive enough. But those are some of the questions I think he's going to need to answer.

BLITZER: Yes. We'll have extensive coverage tomorrow and Monday of these hearings. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

SCHIFF: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Adam Schiff is the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

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