Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker for a wide-ranging discussion on ‘stalled’ peace talks following an unsuccessful U.S.-Russia Summit in Alaska and the FBI raid of former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s home and office, which Schiff stressed as the latest example of the administration’s routine targeting of people who oppose President Trump.
Schiff also questioned the value of the newly released details of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s conversation with convicted Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and reinforced support for California’s redistricting initiative in response to President Trump’s push for political gerrymandering in Texas and other Republican-led states.
View the full interview here.
Key Excerpts:
On Putin slow-walking any potential agreement to end Russia’s war in Ukraine:
[…] Our national security interest is seeing a strong, sovereign, independent democratic Ukraine. And measured against that, this summit, I think, was a failure. It didn’t advance our interests or Ukraine’s interests or that of our allies. Putin walked away with essentially no ceasefire, despite the president’s demand for it. He walked away after being on the stage, on U.S. soil. The U.S. president literally had the red carpet rolled out for him. He walked away out from under the threat of sanctions from the United States. Trump had promised to impose sanctions. So, they strung him along successfully. And I think the president, for his part, was correct when he said, “Ukraine can’t win a war if it can’t go on offense.” But it is the president’s administration that is preventing Ukraine from going on offense by preventing Ukraine from using weapons to attack Russia on Russian soil. So, I think it was a real setback for us. Lavrov, no surprises in his statements, except perhaps in his inability to directly refute the idea that they’re stringing along the president.
On the Trump administration’s targeting of perceived political enemies:
I think this is clearly retribution. I mean, the idea that they, what, just picked John Bolton, a prominent critic of the president at random. What the president is trying to do here is very systemic and systematic. And that is anyone who stands up to the president, anyone who criticizes the president, anyone who says anything adverse to the president’s interests gets the full weight of the federal government brought down on them.
So, if you’re John Bolton, you get your home seized. If you’re on the Federal Reserve and you won’t lower interest rates, you get threatened with prosecution or with firing. If you’re a general, like the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and you issue a report — or the agency does casting doubt on the success of U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities — you get fired. If you are the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and you give a jobs report that the president doesn’t like, you get fired. They’re essentially going after any critic, any opposition, in an effort to intimidate them. That’s what this is about. It’s not about Bolton per se. It’s about anyone else that, like Bolton, might stand up to the president.
On the lack of value from the transcripts from the Department of Justice’s interview with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell:
[…] I don’t think it will satisfy anyone. They go and do this interview without the presence of a prosecutor who actually knows the facts, because they fired her — James Comey’s daughter. So, they go in there — the number two person at the Justice Department — not knowing any of the facts. Not having a lawyer present to represent the victims of this child sex trafficking. The convicted sex trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell, goes into this interview undoubtedly told by her attorney, “Unless you completely exonerate the president, you’re going to spend most of the rest of your life in prison.” So, she wants a pardon. She says exactly what her lawyers tell her is going to be necessary to get a pardon. No one should be surprised here, and she’s immediately moved to a less secure prison, which is not for convicted child sex traffickers. It all stinks to high heaven. And there’s a common denominator here too, which is the president going after his enemies to distract from their failure to do the one thing they promised to the Justice Department, and that is release the Epstein files.
On California standing up to Republican political gerrymandering plans:
Democrats offered the legislation in the last session to eliminate the gerrymander in every state. We supported, I think to a person. Republicans, I think almost to a person, maybe to a person, opposed that. It’s very clear what party wants to do away with gerrymandering. But it was interesting to me when you asked J.D. Vance, “Hey, if your agenda is so popular, why are you trying to gerrymander Texas, a state that has already gerrymandered to elect Republicans?” And he didn’t try to defend the president’s agenda. The president is deeply unpopular. One of the most unpopular presidents in history. His agenda is unpopular. The Big Ugly Bill that is cutting health care for millions to fund tax cuts for rich people is historically unpopular. So of course, the only way they feel they can survive the midterms is by redrawing the lines in Texas. California is not going to stand for this. We will fight fire with fire. Don’t poke the bear. And it’s going to be necessary. But I hope what will come out of the end of all of this is where we should have begun, and that was with the Democratic bill to end the gerrymander in every state.
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