MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Adam Schiff

Interview

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HAYES:  Trump today also named the officials who will represent his administration to McCain`s funeral since McCain declared shortly before he passed away that Trump was not welcome to attend the funeral.  The previous two Presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush will both be offering eulogies.  Now the animosity between the celebrated GOP Senator and the relentlessly graceless president has made things awkward for Republican Senators as they took to the floor today to honor their former colleague they were addressing a GOP electorate that is now almost entirely faithful to a man McCain seemed to despise.
 
Look at the polls.  Trump`s approval rating among Republicans now stands at 88 percent.  Late last year NBC polling put McCain`s approval rating among those same voters at just 35 percent.  It`s not really a contest.  That means elected Republicans are effectively bound to Trump whether they like it or not.  Today The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump`s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, remember him, sought a deal for his second trial after being convicted in his first trial last week although before jury deliberations actually deliver that conviction but talks broke down.
 
If Trump`s current legal issues bring him down, he could take down much of the GOP with him.  And they aren`t the only existential threat.  Axios reported today Republicans have been get this, secretly circulating a spreadsheet that meticulously previews the investigations Democrats will likely launch if they, in fact, take control of the house and there are a lot of them.
 
Republicans identified 18 different possible areas investigation from Trump`s dealings with Russia to the Stormy Daniels payoff to the firing of James Comey new election security.  With me now one of the Democrats who would be at the helm of many of those investigations Congressman Adam Schiff of California, top Democrat in the House Intelligence Committee.  I want to ask you about that list but first wanted to see if you had anything to say today about a Senator John McCain.
 
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE:  Well, you know, those of us that had a chance to get to know him and I traveled with him a number of times just had the greatest admiration for him, his bravery, his plain-spoken manner, his sense of humor, the respect that he had for and was shown to him by leaders all around the world.  He really is irreplaceable and this is a terrible time to lose him. 
 
The country really needs people to put country over party particularly in the GOP where they have effectively acted as a rubber stamp for this president and John was no rubber stamp.  He was tenacious in defending the interests of the country even when they conflicted with his own party.  So he will be greatly missed and there`s really no one else like him.
 
HAYES:  You just talked about the rubber stamp nature of the current Republican majority and that brings us to this memo they are circulating which is you could just be a memo from Democrats or it could be a memo that the reporter wrote about oh here are some things that probably should be investigated.  This is not like crazy out there red meat stuff.  Things like the tax returns, emoluments violations for which there`s several federal suits dealings with Russia, the Stormy Daniels payment which of course was lied about and since been confirmed, James Comey firings, Steve Mnuchin`s business dealings, the cabinet secretary travel expenses.  What do you think of those list?
 
SCHIFF:  Well, you know I think that there are great many candidates to be on that list that probably aren`t even on the list.  You know, I`ll give you one that I find particularly troubling where reports a couple months ago that the president was meeting privately with the Postmaster General to try to browbeat her into raising postal rates on Amazon to punish Jeff Bezos in the Washington Post.  We see a president using the instruments of power to attack the Free Press and the First Amendment.
 
And so there`s any number of issues many of which are not on that list which have gone completely without oversight.  Why did the President reverse course on this Chinese telecom ZTE, was it because of reports that China was going to invest $500 million in a Trump-branded property?  Is U.S. policy basically for sale in Indonesia or in the Middle East or through a Jared Kushner?  There are great many serious allegations of impropriety.
 
And Chris, all you need to know about the current GOP Congress`s unwillingness complete abdication of any oversight responsibilities you can tell from a single statistic and that is the chairman of the Government Oversight and Reform Committee Trey Gowdy who brought us the endless Benghazi investigations has an issued a single subpoena during the Trump Administration to investigate any allegations of incompetence or corruption within the Trump Administration.  They have just been utterly unwilling to do their jobs.
 
HAYES:  He really hasn`t issued one not one?
 
SCHIFF:  Not one that I`m aware of, no.  It`s really quite breathtaking but it is a sign and we certainly see it on the -- on the Intelligence Committee where the only subpoenas they seemed intent on issuing were to investigate the investigators.  When people like Steve Bannon came in, yes, finally he got a subpoena but when he still refused to answer questions, they said well OK, we`re not prepared to take it further.  We really honestly don`t want to know the answers and that unfortunately set the tone for their oversight responsibilities.
 
HAYES:  And one of the things that was investigated briefly was of course, the President and the attacks by Russia during the election, a committee on which you`re the ranking member.  Roger Stone was on the individuals I believe who came before you in that investigation.  And you know this area of fact better than most having been had access to classified material and also to some of the interviews that happened there so I wanted to get your reaction to a bizarre statement by Roger Stone today posted the internet out of nowhere in which he attempts to kind of get out ahead of what he says an impending story and deny it.  Take a listen. 

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HAYES:  Thoughts?
 
SCHIFF:  Well, first of all, I wouldn`t believe what Roger Stone has to say any further than I could throw him.  There any number of statements he made under oath to our committee which have been put into question by other things that have been reported since.  Their if you look carefully at what he had to say, he is denying that he told the President exactly what would be in the WikiLeaks disclosures and it would be just like Roger Stone to say well I didn`t say that I didn`t tell them what would be in it I just said that I didn`t tell them exactly what would be in it.
 
So you simply can`t believe anything Roger Stone has to say at least from my experience.  He`s one of the people that I think ought to be brought back for further questioning before our committee.  In light of statements, for example, I think he and others have acknowledged that they were approached by someone with a Slavic background offering information that would be useful to the campaign.  So these are things that I think need further investigation certainly but I don`t know what else to make of this rather bizarre video.
 
HAYES:  Well, that -- you join a lot of people in that -- in that ultimate determination.  Congressman Adam Schiff, thanks your time tonight. 
 
SCHIFF:  Thanks, Chris. 

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