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

Interview

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[18:40:00]

BLITZER: Federal authorities, including the FBI, are investigating whether recently published emails that purport to deal -- to detail, I should say, the business dealings of Joe Biden's son, Hunter, are connected to an ongoing Russian disinformation effort targeting the Biden campaign in the days leading up to the election.

Let's discuss with the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Adam Schiff. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

Does it surprise you at all that this information Rudy Giuliani is peddling very well could be connected to some sort of Russian government disinformation campaign?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Well, we know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin. That's been clear for well over a year now that they've been pushing this false narrative about the vice president and his son.

And, you know, the idea that the president, that the White House Counsel and others were made aware that Giuliani was being used by Russian intelligence and using Russian intelligence in the sense of meeting with an agent of the Kremlin and pushing out this Kremlin false narrative, the idea that they were knowing and still on the floor of the Senate during the impeachment trial, pushing this Kremlin narrative is pretty breathtaking.

But I guess at this point we can't be shocked by anything this administration does, no matter how craven. But, clearly, the origins of this whole smear are from the Kremlin, and the president is only too happy to have Kremlin help and try to amplify it.

BLITZER: It's not like Rudy Giuliani is peddling this information in a vacuum, Congressman. Take a look at this picture of the president in the Oval Office holding up a copy of the New York Post touting this conspiracy theory. It's made its way all the way to the commander in chief with a big smile on his face.

SCHIFF: Yes. Well, look, I think we know who the driving force behind this smear has been all along and it's been the president and the Kremlin. The Kremlin has an obvious interest in denigrating Joe Biden. They want Donald Trump to win.

They recognize he's a weak president. He's been utterly unwilling to stand up to Putin and other autocrats. He has diminished NATO. He has criticized and weakened our alliance with our transatlantic partners. He's been the gift that doesn't stop giving for the Kremlin. So, clearly, they want to help him. So they want to denigrate the vice president. The Intelligence Community has made that abundantly clear.

And this particular smear though has also been acknowledge to come from the Kremlin, and there it is from the Oval Office, another wonderful propaganda coup from Vladimir Putin, seeing the president of the United States holding up a newspaper promoting Kremlin propaganda. It's really incredible.

BLITZER: The Washington Post, as you saw, is reporting that when the president was actually warned of concerns about Giuliani, where he was getting all this information, warned by U.S. intelligence, law enforcement authorities, the president simply shrugged his shoulders and responded, that's Rudy. How much is that a part of the problem here that the president, at least according to this reporting in the Washington Post, doesn't seem to care?

SCHIFF: Well, it's a big part of the problem. And we know for a long time, look, Rudy Giuliani doesn't, you know, run the president, the president runs Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani is doing the president's bidding. He was doing the president's bidding late last year and earlier this year in Ukraine.

[18:45:02]

He was doing the president's bidding when he was pushing out this smear and trying to get the Ukrainians to push out this smear of his opponent because he was deathly afraid of being exactly where we are right now, which is less than three weeks from the election, losing badly to Joe Biden.

But the fact that he would continue to do it, I guess at this point shouldn't surprise us. But this is the story of Donald Trump -- utter unwillingness to stand up to the Kremlin, willingness to use their help no matter how dishonest or disreputable, a willingness to undermine our own elections by getting Kremlin help and amplifying it. And there's only one remedy at this point and that's to vote him out.

BLITZER: Have you, as a member of the Gang of Eight, the top leadership in the Congress, the Senate, and the House, and members of the Intelligence Committee, have you been formally briefed on what the Russians are up to right now in trying to peddle this kind of information?

SCHIFF: Well, I was in the Intelligence Committee today to see what the latest was, and frankly, we haven't gotten much from the intelligence community very recently, which concerns me. They have at times, some of the leadership, like Director Ratcliffe, not been very forthcoming in terms of the intelligence on the Russian threat and been promoting this false equivalence with other countries.

So, you know, I wish I could tell you more, Wolf. I wish the intelligence community was able to tell the public more.

But we do know this: the Russians are once again actively involved in trying to denigrate the vice president, Donald Trump is helping them, and we know that they are amplifying the president's misinformation about absentee ballots.

This is another gift the president is giving the Russians. Unlike 2016 when the Russians had to make up this stuff, they now can simply use the president's own false statements and amplify them. It is extraordinary, Wolf, that a president of the United States is telling his own citizens and the rest of the world that America can't hold a free and fair election. The Kremlin just has to push out that false narrative by the president of the United States.

BLITZER: Congressman Adam Schiff, thank you so much for joining us.

SCHIFF: Thank you, Wolf.

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