CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Adam Schiff

Interview

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TAPPER: All right. Alex Marquardt, thanks so much. Joining us now to discuss, Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff of California, the chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence.

Chairman Schiff, thanks for joining us.

So, the intent of these new sanctions is to deter Russia, but you say that sanctions alone are not enough. What other actions do you think the Biden administration needs to take?

[16:05:03]

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Well, particularly in the cyber arena, there are certain things the sanctions are not going to deter. If the Russians think it's within their advantage to steal certain information, whether it's trade secrets or national security secrets, they're going to try. And we are just going to have to really harden our cyber defenses.

If we're really, really good, we might detect in advance maybe, I don't know, 25, 50, even 75 percent of planned attacks by Russia or China, probably a lot less, frankly. The rest are going to get through, and so we need to make sure that first and foremost, our defenses are much stronger than they are today.

TAPPER: These sanctions reveal a new acknowledged, public link between the Trump campaign in 2016 and Russia. The U.S. now designating Konstantin Kilimnik, a known Russian agent, and revealing the Trump campaign official Paul Manafort gave Kilimnik sensitive internal polling, which we already knew, and campaign strategy information, but now, the U.S. intelligence is acknowledging for the first time that Kilimnik gave that information to Russian intelligence.

Now, you led the committee's probe into Trump and Russia. You've gotten a lot of heat, frankly, for suggesting that there was proof of conspiracy or collusion that Mueller did not definitively prove. So what do you make of this announcement?

SCHIFF: Well, I think it's just further evidence of the fact that the Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was giving internal campaign polling data and strategic information to an agent of Russian intelligence. And, you know, I think if that were done by a Democratic president administration, then I think Republicans universally would say, well, that's exactly what collusion is.

It doesn't matter what party is responsible. That kind of unethical, immoral conduct, unpatriotic conduct ought to be condemned. But, look, it's a direct link between the Trump campaign getting that information at a time when the Russians were engage in the trying to help Trump win through this social media campaign, in which that very data, given to Russian intelligence, would help that clandestine social media campaign.

TAPPER: There's another thing we learned today, perhaps for flattering to President Trump, which is about this bounty story. Now, as a candidate, Biden accused the president of betraying his duty by not punishing Russia after reports they put bounties on soldiers in Afghanistan. But now, President Biden is not punishing Russia for that specifically because the intelligence community says that they have low to moderate confidence it's a true story.

So, it looks as though Trump might have had the right response, don't you think?

SCHIFF: Well, I don't think Trump didn't have to right response in that he didn't confront the Russians on them didn't appear to take it seriously. You know, it's my sense that the intelligence community believes the Russians did engage in this conduct, but they don't have to right level of confidence in that conclusion to go forward with sanctions on that basis.

What it also tells us, though, is with respect to those areas that they have moved forward on, just how solid they view the intelligence to be in terms of Russia's intervention in 2016, in our 2020 election, in terms of Russia's responsibility for the SolarWinds hack and other maligned activity, it just shows you how very confident they are in that intelligence.

TAPPER: So Biden spoke with Putin this week. In the readout of the call, Biden did not bring up imprisoned Russian dissident Alexey Navalny nor did he bring up either of the former U.S. Marines that are currently in Russian jails unjustly, Trevor Reed and Paul Whelan. Was that a mistake not to bring those three men up?

SCHIFF: I believe, and I can't be 100 percent sure about this, but in the last call with Putin -- this is the second call that I know of. He did raise the issue with Navalny, and those things need to be front and center in terms of our relationship. But, you know, I think the president obviously had a whole array of priorities in this particular call with Putin, and I think that those issues, though, if there is a summit, they absolutely have to be on the table and we have to impress upon Putin in every way we can that we will respond when they poison Putin's opponents, and we will respond when they unjustly imprison people, particularly when they take action against U.S. citizens.

TAPPER: Let's talk about that proposed summit which Biden proposed, might happen in the coming months with Putin. Today, Biden administration officials say Biden wants to build a more stable and predictable relationship with Russia.

How can that happen based on all the activities Russia is engaged in?

SCHIFF: Well, you know, I think what the president has done, which makes sense, is to push back hard in areas where the Russians are acting in ways that are antithetical to our interests and to the international institutions and rule of law.

[16:10:12]

But at the same time recognize there are some common interests. Limiting nuclear weapons is a deep common interest. Avoiding unexpected warfare, blundering into warfare is a common interest. And so, I think it was very smart of the administration, quite

frankly. At the same time they're embarking on a strong pushback of Russian maligned activities to keep to door open and say, we recognize there's some common interest and we want at least some predictability in the relationship.

TAPPER: All right. Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff of California of the House Intelligence Committee -- Chairman, thanks for your time today, sir. Good to see you.

SCHIFF: Good to see you.

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