Tapper Confronts Adam Schiff: ‘Aren’t You Contributing to the Lack of Faith’ in DOJ and FBI?
Following a contentious interview with White House senior policy advisor Stephen Miller that he brought to an early end due to Miller’s churlish behavior, CNN’s Jake Tapper grilled Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) for asserting that a new investigation into the Clinton Foundation is politically motivated.
The California Democrat stated that he was concerned that President Donald Trump’s “serious flaws” were permeating other parts of the government, using the recently re-opened investigation into Hillary Clinton’s charity organization as an example.
“That would be a violation of all the protections we put in place post-Watergate,” Schiff said. “And no one should imagine that, if that’s the case, that the president won’t similarly badger the Justice Department to investigate anyone who runs against him in 2020.”
Tapper pressed the Democratic lawmaker on whether he had evidence that this investigation being conducted by the FBI and Justice Department was being done for political reasons.
“How do you not know that it’s a legitimate investigation?” the CNN anchor asked. “I mean, I thought that the whole idea was, we’re supposed to believe that the FBI and the people at the Justice Department are men and women of integrity.”
Schiff responded by stating that it doesn’t take a “stable genius” to see why Clinton is being investigated, further noting that “they’re being badgered by the White House to do it.”
“Well, with all due respect, Congressman, aren’t you contributing to the lack of faith in these institutions?” Tapper shot back. “All we know is that the investigation into the Clinton Foundation has started anew. There might be new evidence. There might be a legitimate reason.”
The State of the Union host added, “You are just saying your suspicion that this is being done because President Trump has publicly called for his political opponents to be investigated. And, clearly, while that casts a cloud over the investigation, the president doing that, that doesn’t necessarily mean there is anything illegitimate about the investigation itself.”
Schiff countered that one would “really have to suspend disbelief” to believe that the investigation was being done for “anything but a political purpose.” He went on to declare that this is a “response to the president’s tweets, his admonitions, his badgering” and he would be “derelict” if he didn’t call it out.
“Well, I don’t want to spend the whole time on this, but I will say you’re asserting your suspicions as fact,” Tapper stated. “And if you get facts to back up your suspicions, I would love to hear them.”
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
[image via screengrab]
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