CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Congressman Adam Schiff

Interview

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[17:20:01]

BLITZER: While President-elect Joe Biden moves ahead with the transition, President Trump remains bunkered over at the White House refusing to cooperate in tweeting false claims about the election. Let's discuss the impact of all that's going on with the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff of California.

Mr. Chairman, thanks so much for joining us.

As you know, the President claims he actually won the election. He's tweeting all about that. He congratulated Republicans in one Michigan county for initially refusing to certify the election. But a couple hours later, they did in fact certify.

And he's pursuing very flimsy arguments in various courts. Most of them already have been rejected. This may be simply a bumbling attempt, but is the sitting President of the United States trying to overturn the legitimate results of this election?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): I think without a question, that's exactly what he's trying to do. I mean, he's failing. But nonetheless, it's staggering that a sitting president United States would try to overturn the results of a perfectly fair and well executed election, remarkably well executed election during a pandemic. It's just extraordinary. And it's so damaging.

He's going to fail, but in the process, he's dragging down our democracy. He's causing millions of Americans to distrust our own election system. He's making, frankly, the United States into a mockery on the world stage.

You know, we are the champions of democracy around the world, at least we used to be before this administration. What are they to think now when we have a president of United States, who is saying America is not capable of holding a fair election? It's just so damaging. And yet, Wolf, it's not at all surprising for this president.

BLITZER: Yes. If you looked at the numbers, Biden is now ahead by almost 6 million votes in the popular, the national popular vote, 98 percent of the vote has already been counted in the Electoral College. You can see 306 to 232, you need 270. He's way ahead in the Electoral College, obviously, as well.

Last night, the President abruptly fired the nation's top election security official. He fired this official by tweet, just the latest example of a series of impulsive moves by the President. What else do you fear Mr. Chairman, he might do in the next 63 days during this lame duck period, before Biden is sworn in as the next president of the United States?

SCHIFF: Sixty-three days is a long time and he seems determined to pull down the House around him on his way out. I expect there'll be further bloodletting. He will fire other good people who are willing to speak truth to power to stand up for our democracy and do the right thing. So there'll be more vengeful firings by tweet. There will be, you know, rewarding of the cronies. You know, the appointment of people like Michael Ellis, as General Counsel for NSA, something he is singularly unsuited for.

You know, that kind of rewarding of bad behavior of partisan actors, we'll see more of that. And most damaging, we will see the President trying to box in the new administration by making last minute policy changes, which he could have made earlier. But this is an effort to both, I suppose try to set himself up to possibly run again in the future, but also just to make life difficult for the Biden ministration because he feels he can.

At the end of the day, this President has only ever been about one thing, and that is doing what's right. And the very narrowest sense of what's right for him personally.

BLITZER: The President-elect is now warning that the coronavirus vaccine rollout could be delayed by weeks, maybe even months because his transition team isn't getting the vital information it needs from the outgoing administration. Will Americans die as a result of this obstruction?

SCHIFF: No, look, it's very possible. We should have a seamless transition in the best of times, we are clearly not in the best of times. Americans are dying more than 1000 a day. And those numbers are just increasing.

So, you would want the new administration to know exactly what the current administration's plan for a rollout of the vaccines is, what work they need to do to get prepared to see if they can accelerate that further. What's more, our hospitals and our clinics are just overwhelmed right now.

And we need to make sure that we don't run into the same problem we had earlier of a lack of protective gear. And if there's steps that need to be taken to evoke the Defense Production Act and the vice president, the president now -- the President-elect can signal to industry what he intends to do, they can get started on that. So yes, lives are hanging in the balance. And these delays could very well be fatal.

BLITZER: Yes. These are critical moments indeed.

Congressman Schiff, thanks so much for joining us. Good luck and stay safe.

[17:25:03]

SCHIFF: Thanks, Wolf, you too.

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