Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) discussed the allegations in the new book by former national security adviser John Bolton and the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
According to the California Democrat, Trump has already been proven “guilty” by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Schiff said, “I would put frankly, at the top of the list the willingness to change tariffs if only China would help him get re-elected and this is a perfect echo of his misconduct with Ukraine, but more than that, we warned during the trial that you could only count on Donald Trump to do what’s right for him and not what’s right for the country. John Bolton says that is exactly this president’s pattern and practice that he didn’t see a significant national foreign approximately policy decision made on any other basis than the personal and political re-election interest and that’s a tragic and dangerous situation for the whole country when the president has that kind of myopic focus what’s right for him and is willing to sacrifice the national interest.”
On the impeachment trial, Schiff said, “Trump is guilty, they found him guilty. The House proved him guilty, and they weren’t prepared to do anything about it, and we have the evidence to prove it, we did prove it.”
He continued, “We will look at what allegations like those involving Turkey and other countries particularly involving China need to be flushed out and exposed to the light of day and then we’ll make our decisions. But you know, we do need, I think, to expose the length and breadth of this president’s depravity and how much it is endangering the country and those facts will need to come out, and we’re discussing with the speaker and my fellow chairs just how to do that.”
On Bolton testifying before his committee, Schiff said, “I don’t think we should wait if we conclude that there are important things that he says that need to be exposed to the public. The public needs to know exactly what they have in this president. A lot of it is not a surprise, but at the same time, exposure of this president’s misconduct is the best way to protect the country. Congress can take steps to protect the country. You know, look, those comments that the president made when only the interpreter and President Xi were in the room, blessing the concentration camps of the Uyghurs. It’s exactly why we want to know what he said to Putin when he’s alone in the room with Putin because he is dealing away our national security. He’s dealing away the values of this country in secret in order to help himself. That’s just so destructive of everything that this country stands for.”
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