During an interview with Yahoo News’ “Skullduggery” podcast released on Friday, House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) stated

Schiff said, “Why would the president undermine NATO? Why would the president undermine Europe? Why would the president talk about bringing Russia back into the G8, when they still occupy their neighbor? Why would the president do all these things? Why would the president deny the obvious, that the Russians intervened in our election? You know, it could be that there is just some pathology at work with him, that he is so terrified that his election was illegitimate that he is responding in this way. So maybe there’s a pathology. But it’s also quite possible that the Russians have compromising material on him, that the Russians were laundering money through his businesses, and he knows that, and they know that. It’s also quite possible that the president believes the Russians have compromising information on him. … But in terms of the United States and our national security and our interests, what matters most is the president’s actions. And he is acting like someone compromised.”

He later added, “[O]ne of the terrible realizations of the last year and a half for me is that the damage that the Russians have done to our democracy, by meddling in our election, is nothing compared to the damage our own president is doing to our democracy by attacking the Justice Department and by denigrating our press, which, you know, in the same full-throated endorsement of the Kremlin, he attacks the real enemy, our free press. So, yes, I think that he is doing enormous damage to our national security beyond anything the Russians could do to us.”

Schiff further stated, “I view this president as the gravest threat to our democracy that I’ve seen, certainly, in my lifetime.”

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