On Sunday’s CNN Newsroom, host Dana Bash colluded with Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) to spin wild Democratic conspiracies about the upcoming election. Bash even set up Schiff to accuse President Trump of colluding with the Russians by suggesting that he is being “aggressive” about mail-in balloting “to send a signal to Russia.”
Bash began the segment by playing clips of President Trump criticizing universal mail-in balloting and implying that he is doing so because he is in league with the Russians:
BASH: The Department of Homeland Security issued an intelligence bulletin obtained by CNN warning about Russian attempts to undermine the U.S. election process. Not only does it say Russia has been amplifying election integrity issues since March, it also goes onto give a series of examples, for instance, the bulletin says Russia has criticized the integrity of expanded and universal vote by mail. That's strikingly familiar to something that President Trump said just last month.
(Cuts to clip)
TRUMP: This universal mail-in is a very dangerous thing. It's fraught with fraud and every other thing that can happen.(Cuts to live)
BASH: The intelligence bulletin also says Russia has denigrated vote by mail processes alleging they lack transparency and procedural oversight, creating vast opportunities for voter fraud. Again, we've heard this too from the President.(Cuts to clip)
TRUMP: The ballots are lost, there's fraud, there's theft. It's -- it’s happening all over the place.(Cuts to live)
BASH: And the DHS warning goes on to say Russia has quote amplified public narratives about shortcomings in ballot delivery and processing and here was President Trump speaking on August 15th.(Cuts to clip)
TRUMP: Now New Jersey is going to try the universal mail-in voting. So how does a post office -- how does a postal service that doesn't know about it, now all of a sudden New Jersey is supposed to take out and millions of ballots are going to be sent all over New Jersey?
Because anyone who criticizes the idea of the whole country switching to universal mail-in balloting just months before the election must be a Russian operative.
Bash then brought on Schiff, who she conspired with last weekend to spread wild conspiracy theories about Trump and the Russians, to continue to push her deceitful claim:
BASH: When you hear the President saying those things and you see the bulletin, and I'm sure you see a lot more than that since you're the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, about Russia what is trying to do when it comes to misinformation or disinformation about the mail-in voting system about to start in this country as the election is here, what are we to think?
SCHIFF: Well, this is really not at all surprising. You know, I think weeks or months ago I was asking intelligence agencies to look out for exactly this, the Russians amplifying the President's false claims about vote by mail. It was simply too attractive a target for the Russians because they could both -- achieve both of their aims, they could cause Americans to distrust their own democracy, but they could also help Donald Trump and the Trump campaign. And sure enough, now this is what we're seeing and tragically the President is doing nothing to deter it, nothing to disrupt it because he frankly wants the Russian help. He's made it abundantly clear in 2016 that he wanted their help, in 2019 that he was ready to coerce Ukraine for their help. He apparently begged President XI for China's help. This president just doesn't care what it does to our democracy.
Instead of questioning Schiff’s tin foil hat tantrum, Bash simply asked if he was “suggesting that the President is being as aggressive as he is on this publicly in order to send a signal to Russia, to do what they're doing?”
Bash’s softball lob of a question set up Schiff to continue his unhinged rant:
Well, I don't think he needs to send a signal. I think the Russians well understand both that this is the President's message and they can help the President's campaign by amplifying it. But they can also potentially help cause chaos in the aftermath of our election and I would look for the Russians again after the election takes place as those ballots are being counted if the President continues his false claims about these -- the sanctity of these ballots, I would expect the Russians to be piling on.
The two then teamed up to accuse Attorney General Barr of “lying” for saying that China is a greater threat to election security, no doubt because China is trying to assist Joe Biden because his policies would be better for it:
SCHIFF: It's just such a disservice to the country that we can't trust our own Attorney General but apparently Bill Barr is ready to do anything or say anything to help Donald Trump.
BASH: So you're basically saying he's lying.
SCHIFF: Well, that's basically what he's doing. And I hesitate to say that. But it’s the reality. Bill Barr isn't going to itemize the intelligence because it's just a flat-out false statement.
Bash should quit pretending to be a journalist and join the Biden campaign team.
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Read the full September 6th transcript here:
CNN Newsroom
09/06/20
7:17:28 PM
DANA BASH: The Department of Homeland Security issued an intelligence bulletin obtained by CNN warning about Russian attempts to undermine the U.S. election process. Not only does it say Russia has been amplifying election integrity issues since March, it also goes onto give a series of examples, for instance, the bulletin says Russia has criticized the integrity of expanded and universal vote by mail. That's strikingly familiar to something that President Trump said just last month.
(Cuts to clip)
DONALD TRUMP: This universal mail-in is a very dangerous thing. It's fraught with fraud and every other thing that can happen.(Cuts to live)
BASH: The intelligence bulletin also says Russia has denigrated vote by mail processes alleging they lack transparency and procedural oversight, creating vast opportunities for voter fraud. Again, we've heard this too from the President.(Cuts to clip)
TRUMP: The ballots are lost, there's fraud, there's theft. It's -- it’s happening all over the place.(Cuts to live)
BASH: And the DHS warning goes on to say Russia has quote amplified public narratives about shortcomings in ballot delivery and processing and here was President Trump speaking on August 15th.(Cuts to clip)
TRUMP: Now New Jersey is going to try the universal mail-in voting. So how does a post office -- how does a postal service that doesn't know about it, now all of a sudden New Jersey is supposed to take out and millions of ballots are going to be sent all over New Jersey?(Cuts to live)
BASH: Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff who is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee joins me now. Thank you so much for coming on. When you hear the President saying those things and you see the bulletin, and I'm sure you see a lot more than that since you're the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, about Russia what is trying to do when it comes to misinformation or disinformation about the mail-in voting system about to start in this country as the election is here, what are we to think?
CONGRESSMAN ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Well, this is really not at all surprising. You know, I think weeks or months ago I was asking intelligence agencies to look out for exactly this, the Russians amplifying the President's false claims about vote by mail. It was simply too attractive a target for the Russians because they could both -- achieve both of their aims, they could cause Americans to distrust their own democracy, but they could also help Donald Trump and the Trump campaign. And sure enough, now this is what we're seeing and tragically the President is doing nothing to deter it, nothing to disrupt it because he frankly wants the Russian help. He's made it abundantly clear in 2016 that he wanted their help, in 2019 that he was ready to coerce Ukraine for their help. He apparently begged President XI for China's help. This president just doesn't care --BASH: Are you --
SCHIFF -- what it does to our democracy.
BASH: Are you suggesting that the President is being as aggressive as he is on this publicly in order to send a signal to Russia, to do what they're doing?
SCHIFF: Well, I don't think he needs to send a signal. I think the Russians well understand both that this is the President's message and they can help the President's campaign by amplifying it. But they can also potentially help cause chaos in the aftermath of our election and I would look for the Russians again after the election takes place as those ballots are being counted if the President continues his false claims about these -- the sanctity of these ballots, I would expect the Russians to be piling on and, you know, what we're trying to do in our committee is expose what the Russians are doing. They shouldn't -- you know -- it shouldn't be that the American people are learning about this through leaks of the press. The intelligence community -- the agencies should be telling the American people. We learned, Dana, in addition to this DHS bulletin, we learned through good reporting just a couple weeks ago that there was a second bulletin saying the Russians were denigrating Joe Biden's health, echoing the same claims, the false smears that Donald Trump is making on Joe Biden. That was withheld from the law enforcement agencies. It was also withheld from congress. I don't remember ever seeing this. And we got to continue to fight to make sure that we're informed and the American people are informed because exposure is one of the -- one of the tools we can use to protect the public.
BASH: And I want to ask you about that in a second. But first I want to ask about something that the Attorney General William Barr said to Wolf Blitzer this past week about threats to this election. Watch this.[Clip]
...
BASH: So Mr. Chairman, without divulging classified information, have you seen evidence that Trump officials insist they have that China is actively interfering in this election far more than Russia?
SCHIFF: No, that's just a plain false statement by the Attorney General. A flat-out false statement. You know, interestingly, some of the other administration officials have been trying to mislead the public by saying that China is the bigger threat to the country in speaking of global terms because of the rise of power of China. And they are using that answer in response to questions about the election, but they're at least careful in their misleading the public by not saying that they're a greater threat to the election. They're just saying generically that they're a bigger threat. But what Bill Barr just did in that statement was just flat out mislead the American people with a blatantly false statement. Joe Biden has been briefed as well as our committees and -- and he acknowledged as much the other day.BASH: So --
SCHIFF: It's just such a disservice to the country that we can't trust our own Attorney General but apparently Bill Barr is ready to do anything or say anything to help Donald Trump.
BASH: So you're basically saying he's lying.
SCHIFF: Well, that's basically what he's doing. And I hesitate to say that. But it’s the reality. Bill Barr isn't going to itemize the intelligence because it's just a flat-out false statement.
BASH: And you're confident that you have seen the intelligence that he has seen and you've come to clearly a different conclusion and that conclusion being it is Russia that is far more active in trying to sow disinformation and misinformation in this election more than China?
SCHIFF: Yes. If you look at what the Intelligence Director Evanina, who runs the National Counterintelligence Center, what he said in his public written statement, he said that Russia was actively interfering, actively engaging across a range of measures to influence the outcome. China had a preference. And if you look at that, you can tell that Bill Barr is just flat-out lying to the American people and it's tragic, but it's as simple as that.
BASH: I asked the Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris about this issue. Take a listen.[Clip]
...
BASH: Do you share that concern, Mr. Chairman?
SCHIFF: Well, I certainly share the concern -- if you look at the 2016 election, it was decided by I think about 70,000 votes in three different states and given the size of the Russian operation, we'll never be able to tell whether that interference was divisive in election that close. If this election is very close, then will these Russian efforts on social media through their overt media, through other modalities the Russians are using, could they be determinative? It's certainly possible which is all the reason -- all the more reason why we need to disrupt -- you know -- deter, disrupt, and expose what the Russians are doing and why what the President is doing and Bill Barr is doing is so destructive of our democracy when they especially cover for the Russians because, you know, by misleading the United States and our -- and our citizens about China, China being a bigger threat to the elections, they're basically giving Russia free rein because the Russians know, you know, that coward, Donald Trump, in the White House will never call out Putin and Bill Barr certainly won’t. Therefore, they can do whatever they want and Donald Trump is still going to blame China.
BASH: Real quick, I know that you wrote a letter inviting the Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to come and testify before your committee. Have you heard back and if not, are you going to issue a subpoena?
SCHIFF: We have not gotten an answer yet and we'll be discussing with the Speaker, following up with whatever coercion we need to make sure we get answers. But Dana, the fact that, for example, The DHS bulletin about the Russians trying to denigrate and smear Joe Biden's health, that was withheld from law enforcement. We can't rely on documents if they're going to be withholding documents. You need to be able to ask questions. So, you know, we'll do whatever we need to do to get the information and protect the country.BASH: That sounds like a subpoena.
SCHIFF: Well, you know, that's a decision that our leadership ultimately makes because it impacts the whole house.
BASH: Understand. Okay. Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, thank you so much for coming on, especially this holiday weekend. Appreciate it.
