CNN "The Situation Room" - TRANSCRIPT U.S. Hits Debt Limit Raising Fears Of Economically Disastrous Default; Washington Post Reports, CIA Chief Secretly Briefed Zelenskyy On Russia's Next War Moves; Alec Baldwin To Be Charged In Fatal Movie Set Shooting; Singer & Songwriter David Crosby Dies At 81. Aired 6-7p ET

Interview

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Let's get some reaction now from Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff of California. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

[18:20:00]

As the lies mount, it certainly looks like top House Republicans still aren't budging on Congressman Santos. Do you see any way to get him out of Congress?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Well, you know, they're not going to be shamed into doing it because, of course, this is a party and a leadership still of Donald Trump who spread, you know, thousands and thousands of lies as president.

So, Santos is very emblematic of that anti-truth trend within the GOP. But because McCarthy is so dependent on every vote, including Santos, they're going to treat him like any other member. And to a sad degree, he is like many of their members, just more extreme.

Wolf, I do want to just -- you showed some images of the president in California. I want to thank the president for being in California, surveying the damage we suffered from these storms and for the emergency declarations that are going to help so many residents and business owners get through this natural disaster. We're greatly appreciative that he is here today.

BLITZER: Yes. He wants to reassure the people of California that the federal government will help.

I want to turn to the looming crisis over the debt ceiling, Congressman. As you know, Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace says insisting on more debt without budget reform isn't serious. Can Democrats sustain the position of refusing to negotiate.

SCHIFF: Well, what I think is not serious is a party saying they're going to take us over the fiscal cliff to try to attack the deficit when their first act in the majority was to defund part of the IRS so that more people could -- more wealthy people could cheat on their taxes, something that's estimated to increase the deficit by $100 billion or more.

So, they're not serious about the deficit. They are serious about basically creating this fiscal crisis in order to exact cuts to social security and Medicare. That's their goal. And I think the Biden administration is exactly right to say you're not going to take the country's fiscal health hostage here. We're not going to negotiate over this. This is something that is -- the debt ceiling applies to debts that are already incurred and we pay our bills. And I think that's exactly the position they should take.

BLITZER: Let me also get your thoughts on a different issues while I have you, Congressman. President Biden, I don't know if you heard it, he just spoke while out in California on the classified documents found in his home and office saying there's no there, there, and he has no regrets. He's been following his lawyers' advice. He's saying that as well. Is that the right tone when this relates to highly sensitive top secret SCI documents? I ask you the question, you're the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

SCHIFF: Well, first of all, I think whenever classified documents are found somewhere they shouldn't be, it's an issue. And we need to find out how the documents ended up there and is there any risk that they were exposed to people that didn't or shouldn't have had access.

The intelligence community does those kind of damage assessments, mitigation assessments. They should do so here. I think what the president is alluding to is, you know, he's very confident that in his case this was completely unintentional, and I believe that's exactly right.

And I think that when they do the investigation, they'll find that there was no intention to hold onto these documents and indeed when they were discovered, they were immediately turned over. That is, of course, a sharp distinction from what Donald Trump did with a far greater number of classified documents. There, there's every evidence that Donald Trump tried to obstruct the investigation and his lawyers may have lied to the FBI about the continued possession of those documents.

So, I understand the president -- President Biden feeling I've got nothing to hide here, this is completely inadvertent. I think he's right. At the same time we need to assess just in case any by the I.C. and take any potential mitigation that might be necessary.

BLITZER: The IC, the Intelligence Community. Congressman Adam Schiff, thanks so much for joining us.

SCHIFF: Thanks, Wolf.

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