MSNBC "All In With Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Adam Schiff

Interview

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REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Good to be with you.

MAXWELL: So, what do you make of the fact that seven Republican senators voted to convict Donald Trump at the second impeachment, not the one you are manager for, the second one, but some of them will not vote to approve a commission to investigate the exact same event.

SCHIFF: Well, look, they`re all falling in line behind Donald Trump. This has been the story since the second impeachment trial. And I think it`s most vividly demonstrated by Mitch McConnell, who gave that impassioned speech after he voted to acquit the President about how guilty the President was and how reprehensible the conduct of the President was.

And now, he just doesn`t want to look into it. And why because the president says, don`t support the bill. And that`s basically where the Republican Party is now. They`re willing to look away, ignore what happened on January 6, tried to bury it, try to deny it, try to pretend that it was just a bunch of tourists. And they don`t want the public to know any more about it.

You know, I watched that clip you played of Marco Rubio. The idea that somehow it`s unfair to have an equal number of Democrats and Republicans on a commission, and to provide that subpoenas can`t go out unless there`s bipartisan support, that somehow that`s unfair, because they actually might want to issue a subpoena.

You can`t do a credible investigation without the power of subpoena. It`s an absurd argument. But it just shows where that party is right now. They are lock stock and barrel, the property of Donald Trump.

MAXWELL: Yes, that was a real stretch, in my view, in terms of that not being fair. I mean, that`s overly fair in a lot of ways. But also this is a -- it`s a nonpartisan commission. The whole point is that it`s outside of the politics. That`s why we`re talking about a commission and not a select committee, like the one from 2015.

And you said this back then about the many Benghazi investigations.

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SCHIFF: This is actually just what concerns me about the select committee, you know, we see with the abuse of impeachment that it becomes just another tool to be used for partisan purposes. And now, this is what the select committee has become.

In the future, I think Benghazi will become synonymous with a partisan abuse of taxpayer dollars. People will say, should we form a Benghazi committee on this.

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MAXWELL: Do you think the Republicans have tainted the ability for Congress to truly have an objective investigation?

SCHIFF: Well, it`s really demonstrated in the Benghazi select committee how they could abuse the process of Congress. I was on two Benghazi investigations, one that was a bipartisan investigation done by the House Intelligence Committee that debunked all these conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton. But that didn`t reach the right conclusion for Kevin McCarthy.

So, we have this partisan select committee that was chaired by Trey Gowdy. It had one mission, tear down Hillary`s numbers. That was a terrible abuse of congressional process and of taxpayer dollars. Does that mean that you can`t have a properly constituted select committee? No, Congress can do the job, right.

But the best way to do it is to perform an independent commission like the 9/11 commission. It`s outside the political process. And I hope that we can find the votes in the Senate to do that. It`s clearly in the public interest. But if that doesn`t work, we`ll have to consider alternatives not to -- not like a partisan way like Benghazi, but in a -- in a thorough and objective way.

But we`re going to get answers one way or another. We`re not going to simply look the other way as a lot of Republicans would like.

MAXWELL: I mean, I imagine the security questions even that John Katko laid out there are ones that need to be answered whether Republicans want answers or not. So, one thing that I want to play for you and get your reaction is in Donald Trump`s first impeachment, you said something that really just stuck with me ever since.

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SCHIFF: You know you can`t trust this president to do what`s right for this country. You can trust he will do what`s right for Donald Trump. He`ll do it now. He`s done it before. He`ll do it for the next several months. He`ll do it in the election if he`s allowed to.

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MAXWELL: What do those words mean to you now?

SCHIFF: It means that, you know, all the horrors that we went through over the last year, including on January 6, were eminently predictable and avoidable if people stood up to that President and people have held their constitutional oath. The evidence against the president in both rounds was overwhelming.

But look, the Republican Party has become the party of Donald Trump. His lies, become their lies. His obfuscation becomes theirs. His opposition to finding out the truth becomes their opposition to finding out the truth. And this is a terrible thing for the country.

We need two functional parties. But right now, we have one functional party, the Democratic Party, and we have a cult, an anti-democratic cult, an anti-truth cult around the president -- the former president. And that as long as that`s the case, this country is going to really struggle.

MAXWELL: Yes, I think that there`s a lot of truth to what you just said. And I think about the fact that we definitely need at least two functioning political parties. Congressman Adam Schiff, thank you so much for being here tonight. And please stay safe.

SCHIFF: You too. Thank you.

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