\u201cI\u2019m looking at these nominees: Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence, possibly Kash Patel to be head of the FBI, Gaetz at DOJ, RFK Jr. at HHS, and others. And, obviously, he is bringing a group of people to disrupt. I mean, that is what [House] Speaker [Mike] Johnson said,\u201d Tapper began, though former Rep. Matt Gaetz, whom Trump nominated to be his attorney general, took his name out of contention on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m wondering about how much anybody in Washington is being introspective at all about why there is this kind of opening for disrupters if not necessarily these individuals,\u201d Tapper continued. \u201cYou were censured in the House last year for, in their view, holding positions of power during the Trump presidency as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and, according to them \u2014 quote \u2014 \u2018abusing this trust\u2019 by saying there was evidence of collusion between Trump\u2019s campaign and Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I wonder if you are feeling at all introspective at all about \u2014 that was, according to your \u2014 according to the Mueller report and according to your Republican colleagues, an overstatement. And I wonder if you think in any way you helped set the table for these disrupters?\u201d Tapper asked.<\/p>\n
Schiff proceeded to triple down on his false claims that Trump and Russia \u2018colluded\u2019 to steal the 2016 election.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, first of all, it wasn\u2019t an overstatement. There is evidence of collusion. The Trump campaign manager was meeting with Russian intelligence and giving them internal polling data, just to give you one example. And the Mueller report sets all this out,\u201d Schiff said.<\/p>\n
Tapper interjected: \u201cIt does say \u2014 quote \u2014 \u2018The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,\u2019 which doesn\u2019t mean that he didn\u2019t \u2014 that there weren\u2019t meetings, but they didn\u2019t find evidence of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
WATCH:<\/p>\n
\u201cMueller says that too. He says the fact that we didn\u2019t find proof beyond a reasonable doubt doesn\u2019t mean there wasn\u2019t evidence of conspiracy or coordination,\u201d Schiff responded without addressing the fact that regardless of Mueller\u2019s views, there was never any evidence found that triggered the probe in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo \u2014 but, look, that\u2019s not what people were voting on. People were voting on, is this guy going to improve the economy? Is he going to address inflation?\u201d Schiff continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we didn\u2019t persuade the American people that we had a better answer to that question, that we had a better program, agenda, plan. And, more than that, I think we failed to persuade the American people that, in the voters\u2019 point of view, hey, that party, that candidate understands people like me. They\u2019re fighting for people like me,\u201d Schiff continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s on us. We\u2019re going to have to figure that out. I think that\u2019s what people were voting on, more than anything else. And, yes, we\u2019re going to have to do the introspection to say, how do we meet this challenge?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
His allegations were based on the notorious Steele dossier, which said that the Kremlin possessed blackmail information against Trump and that Trump\u2019s team had conspired with Russia.<\/p>\n
In 2021, Special Counsel John Durham accused Russian analyst Ivan Danchenko, who was thought to be the main sub source for the Steele dossier, of lying to the FBI, further undermining the dossier\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI\u2019m looking at these nominees: Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence, possibly Kash Patel to be head of the FBI, Gaetz at DOJ, RFK Jr. at HHS, and others. And, obviously, he is bringing a group of people to disrupt. I mean, that is what [House] Speaker [Mike] Johnson said,\u201d Tapper began, though…<\/p>\n