In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union on Wednesday, Senator-elect Adam Schiff (D-CA) was asked whether he had reflected on the numerous Russia investigations, including the Mueller special counsel probe, and whether they may have influenced President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to appoint “disrupters” to his second Cabinet.
“I’m looking at these nominees: Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence, possibly Kash Patel to be head of the FBI, Gaetz at DOJ, RFK Jr. at HHS, and others. And, obviously, he is bringing a group of people to disrupt. I mean, that is what [House] Speaker [Mike] Johnson said,” Tapper began, though former Rep. Matt Gaetz, whom Trump nominated to be his attorney general, took his name out of contention on Thursday.
“And I’m wondering about how much anybody in Washington is being introspective at all about why there is this kind of opening for disrupters if not necessarily these individuals,” Tapper continued. “You were censured in the House last year for, in their view, holding positions of power during the Trump presidency as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and, according to them — quote — ‘abusing this trust’ by saying there was evidence of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
“And I wonder if you are feeling at all introspective at all about — that was, according to your — according to the Mueller report and according to your Republican colleagues, an overstatement. And I wonder if you think in any way you helped set the table for these disrupters?” Tapper asked.
Schiff proceeded to triple down on his false claims that Trump and Russia ‘colluded’ to steal the 2016 election.
“You know, first of all, it wasn’t an overstatement. There is evidence of collusion. The Trump campaign manager was meeting with Russian intelligence and giving them internal polling data, just to give you one example. And the Mueller report sets all this out,” Schiff said.
Tapper interjected: “It does say — quote — ‘The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,’ which doesn’t mean that he didn’t — that there weren’t meetings, but they didn’t find evidence of it.”
“Mueller says that too. He says the fact that we didn’t find proof beyond a reasonable doubt doesn’t mean there wasn’t evidence of conspiracy or coordination,” Schiff responded without addressing the fact that regardless of Mueller’s views, there was never any evidence found that triggered the probe in the first place.
“So — but, look, that’s not what people were voting on. People were voting on, is this guy going to improve the economy? Is he going to address inflation?” Schiff continued.
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“And we didn’t persuade the American people that we had a better answer to that question, that we had a better program, agenda, plan. And, more than that, I think we failed to persuade the American people that, in the voters’ point of view, hey, that party, that candidate understands people like me. They’re fighting for people like me,” Schiff continued.
“And that’s on us. We’re going to have to figure that out. I think that’s what people were voting on, more than anything else. And, yes, we’re going to have to do the introspection to say, how do we meet this challenge?” he added.
His allegations were based on the notorious Steele dossier, which said that the Kremlin possessed blackmail information against Trump and that Trump’s team had conspired with Russia.
In 2021, Special Counsel John Durham accused Russian analyst Ivan Danchenko, who was thought to be the main sub source for the Steele dossier, of lying to the FBI, further undermining the dossier’s credibility.
