CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Interview with Adam Schiff

Interview

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REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Well, I can't go into the particulars, but I can tell you that we want to move quickly so we're already discussing our first hearing, we want to bring in some of the rank and file police officers who defended us and the Capitol that day. Many of whom have not been heard by the public. The public has heard from some of the leadership of the department. But we want to make sure that those voices are heard as we were discussing that initial hearing, as well as some other hearings.

We're also very determined to go forward with subpoenas to preserve records and make sure that we get them in a timely way. And just once again, underscore the seriousness of what we're engaged in.

BURNETT: So Congressmen, our Melanie Zanona is reporting some of the specific names here that the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is considering, like finalizing. Some of them we just heard there in that group of sound bites that I just played; Jim Banks, McCarthy ally, Mike Johnson, former constitutional law attorney who is a Trump impeachment surrogate and two top Republicans who are among Trump's most loyal allies, Jim Jordan, all the way along and, of course, most recently Elise Stefanik.

So look, these GOP picks have to be made in consultation with Speaker Pelosi. So my question to you is has McCarthy sort of played this well? He's not putting Marjorie Taylor Greene or Matt Gaetz or Gosar or anybody like that on there. But some of these names are clearly people who - we all know where they stand and we know how they see this. Aren't any of these acceptable to you?

SCHIFF: Well, first of all in terms of whether he's played this well, no, not at all. We offered thanks to the negotiation of Bennie Thompson and John Katko, the bipartisan negotiation commission would be completely evenly divided in which neither party could issue a subpoena without the acquiescence of at least one member of the other party.

McCarthy didn't want that and he didn't want that because Donald Trump didn't want it and that's the only criteria for Kevin McCarthy. So that was defeated in the Senate and it didn't earn that many Republican votes in the House. Now, we have a select committee and he's complaining about the composition of the select committee.

You can't have it both ways, but that's what he's trying in terms of whether any of the people he's contemplating are acceptable or not. I can only hope that he will appoint people that will take the task seriously. I don't care whether they're conservative or not, or ultra conservative. What I would hope for are people that are willing to work in good faith to get to the truth. That has not really been Kevin's priority.

BURNETT: So let me just ask you, do you think, Congressman, and this is a tough question, because people can change their mind based on information on Trump having a significant part of this. We all have enough information to know that but there's a lot of details.

So are there Republicans that you would think could be honest and about this who didn't support impeachment or who didn't support investigating the election?

[19:10:11]

SCHIFF: Yes. I mean, I think there are any number of Republicans that could be very serious about this and they might even question their own assumptions of a few months ago. I don't know whether those are the kinds of people that Kevin McCarthy wants. My guess is and I think your analysis is spot on, he wants people who will defend him and defend the president without question.

And even that I would prefer to others who just want to make a circus out of the proceedings and cast aspersions on the whole work of the committee. But at the end of the day, we're going to do our work, we're going to do it thoroughly, we're going to try to create a report that's as comprehensive and holds up to time as the 9/11 commission report. We'll do that if we have good willing partners and we'll do that if we don't, because the work just has to get done.

BURNETT: So I just played a moment ago, I don't know if you heard it, as you were hooking up, Congressman, about what the former President said today about Ashli Babbitt. Obviously what he says about the guns is incorrect, but this is not new. He keeps talking about this even within the past week. In fact, this has become a rallying cry for him. So here he is, again, from today and then from his rally just a few days ago on Saturday.

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TRUMP: There were no guns in the Capitol except for the gun that shot Ashli Babbitt and nobody knows who that man were. Why isn't that person being opened up, and why isn't that being studied? They've already written it off. They said that case is closed.

If that were on the other side, the person that did the shooting would be strung up and hung, OK? There was no reason for it who shot Ashli Babbitt. It's got to be released.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: This is after Republican Congressman Paul Gosar are claimed Babbitt was executed. How dangerous is talk like this, Congressman?

SCHIFF: Well, it's very dangerous and it's very specifically dangerous when the president is trying to reveal the identity of a police officer that he knows, he may put in their life in jeopardy if that person's identity becomes public. So it's very serious as well as just sort of fanning this right wing talking point, but that's what Donald Trump does.

The last thing he wants to talk about is his own culpability in all of this. The last thing he wants to talk about is the big lie that he put out about the election and continues to put out. And this is both a good distraction, it's a way of endearing himself once again to the right wing base. But if he does that in the process and endangers this person's life, he's perfectly fine with that.

BURNETT: Congressman Schiff, I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you.

SCHIFF: Thank you.

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