On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) reacted to the firing of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson by stating President Trump is “retaliating against people that are on his enemies list and doing it in the dead of night” as people are dying.

Schiff stated, “We’re in the middle of a pandemic, and what is this president doing, as thousands of people are dying? He is retaliating against people that are on his enemies list and doing it in the dead of night. This is just another showing of the character or the lack of character of this president. But it is a real threat to the independence of the intelligence community, which lost the head of the community, the DNI — the acting DNI and his deputy, the acting head of the National Counterterrorism Center was also fired, along with — his deputy also left the office. So, he’s decapitating the leadership of the intelligence community in the middle of a national crisis. It’s unconscionable, and of course, it sends a message throughout the federal government, and in particular, to other inspector generals, that if they do their job, as this professional did…they too, may be fired by a vindictive president.”

He later added that the law will have to be changed in the next Intelligence Authorization Act to better protect IGs.

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