MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript Interview with Adam Schiff

Interview

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HAYES: Joining me now for more on this story, Democratic Congressman Adam

Schiff of California. He, of course, is the chair of the House Intelligence

Committee. I want to start first, Congressman, with -- obviously you can`t

get into anything classified, but just your -- how much this jives with

what you know, or your assessment of the -- of the sort of contours of the

overall story of these as they`ve been told in the press?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Well, you`re right. I can`t get into any

classified information. But you know, look, the Russians and Putin in

particular view the world in zero sum terms. Anything that helps the United

States is bad for Russia and vice versa. They have nothing but malevolent

intent towards the United States. I think that also concerns our troops

wherever their station.

And so, we need to get to the bottom of these reports. I`m going to be

briefed at the White House tomorrow. I`m asking that my entire committee be

briefed by the Intel agencies and indeed the Speaker wants the whole house

briefed as is perfectly appropriate. But is this another situation where

the President either was told and just rejects it or his people are too

scared to tell him because it contradicts this narrative of Vladimir Putin

being his buddy.

You know, I watched the interview with Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, where

he not only denied it, but he used profanity to deny it. And you know how

that impresses Donald Trump when someone denies something strongly. After

all, in Helsinki, when he was choosing between what his intelligence

agencies were telling him and what Vladimir Putin was telling him, he made

a, you know, particular point about talking about how strong Putin`s

denials were as if that`s somehow a good index of the truth.

So we need to know, was the President informed about this, were options

presented to the President about this, or are they simply afraid to present

the President with anything he doesn`t want to hear?

HAYES: There was a strange briefing that happened today, of course, that

you weren`t included in. The White House briefed eight House Republicans on

the Intel. The Democrats are scheduled tomorrow. I don`t -- maybe I`m

missing something. Maybe this is fairly standard operating procedure for

this kind of thing, but I can`t recall something like that. What is going

on there?

SCHIFF: It`s not standard operating procedure, at least it certainly

shouldn`t be. Those briefings should be done in a bipartisan basis. Now, I

did have some communication from the White House today and I expect

tomorrow we will get a briefing of some of the Democratic National Security

chairs. But it really ought to be done in a non-partisan way with both

parties represented.

It`s important, frankly, that we hear the same information. That`s why, you

know, these briefings, you know, we try to do these all in a bipartisan

basis in our committee. At the moment the Republicans are boycotting the

briefings that we are doing. But it`s really, you know, beneficial,

frankly, to make sure that neither party is getting a different take from

either intelligence leaders or the White House.

HAYES: Wait, the Republicans are boycotting the briefings in our committee

right now?

SCHIFF: They have been, yes. And we`re not quite sure why. They don`t have

much of an explanation for it. But we`ve had important briefings on

national security issues. We have another one coming up this week. And for

whatever reason, they`ve decided on mass, they`re not going to attend and

so they`re ignoring the work of the committee.

HAYES: Wait a second. A boycott doesn`t work unless you articulate the

reason for your boycott, so that the people you`re boycotting could concede

to your demands. What you`re saying is they`re boycotting your committee

briefings but not telling you why?

SCHIFF: Yes. We`ve got no explanation. I saw one of the members try to

explain that they don`t think that it`s secure enough. But these briefings

are unclassified material. In fact, some of these briefings are open

hearings, and they`re still not even attending, even the open hearings for

the public.

So, I`m not sure how to explain it. I think it`s very childish. But the

more fundamental point, whether it`s the work of our committee, or it`s a

briefing from the White House, is really ought to be done on a nonpartisan

basis so that all the members are operating from good information.

HAYES: What -- I mean, what is the next step here? If this -- I mean, if --

there`s two pressing matters here, right? Like did the President know about

this, this administration about this and do nothing, and in fact, as

Senator Murphy said, essentially get a green light to bounties on the heads

of American servicemen and women, and also what to be done now. If in fact

that that that has happened and what the -- what the implications of that

are. What is your -- what is your feeling about that?

SCHIFF: Well, you know, I think what we need to do is we need to get an

explanation a briefing from the Intelligence Community leadership, what are

they know these allegations, what kind of confidence do they have, and what

they may or may not know about these allegations? And have there been

policy debates within the administration about what they`re planning to do

if they`re going to sit on their hands because this president can`t stand

up to Vladimir Putin.

Congress needs to take steps to protect our troops and to protect our

national interest. You know, we have seen time and time again, this

President put his own personal interests above those of the nation. This

may be another example of the president doing that, or maybe another

example of Intelligence Community or other leadership simply afraid to

confront the president.

They -- you know, we`ve already seen how there`s a reluctance to brief the

President on Russian interference in our election. He doesn`t want to hear

it. He thinks it`s all a hoax. Is this an extension of that denial of

reality by the president?

HAYES: Congressman Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence

Committee. Thank you so much for your time.

SCHIFF: Thanks, Chris.

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