Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff tried to downplay his role in hyping the debunked Steele dossier, while on The View Tuesday. While the enamored liberal hosts threw softball after softball to the key promoter of the Russian collusion hoax, it took guest host, and former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus, to call out the House Intelligence Committee chairman for spreading misinformation on television for years about the Trump campaign.
Schiff was clearly in a room full of fans, so he thought he was safe from scrutiny. There were lots of applauding, cheering, and anti-Republican questions as the hosts plugged his new, 500+page book on Donald Trump’s impeachment and January 6. After facing softballs from Joy Behar about violent Republicans, and selling President Biden’s infrastructure package from Sara Haines, Ortagus was the only one to ask the Democrat a tough question that he wholeheartedly deserved.
Schiff lied for years about having evidence showing the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians in the 2016 election. That claim was found out to be a lie in 2020. This past week, the primary source for the Steele Dossier, connected to the Clinton campaign, was charged with lying to the FBI, so Ortagus confronted him about it:
I want to ask you about something that's in the news a lot right now. You have been really prolific being the head of the Intel committee. You defended and promoted and even read into the congressional record the Steele dossier. And we know the main source was indicted by the FBI for lying about most of the key claims in that dossier. Do you have any reflections on your role in promoting this to the American people?
She was the only one. The media ignored this latest development. Schiff tried to distance himself from the debunked dossier too and claimed it didn’t matter:
Well, first of all whoever lied to the FBI or lied to Christopher Steele should be prosecuted and they are, and unlike in the Trump administration, if they're convicted, they should go to jail and not be pardoned. So Donald Trump pardoned Roger Stone for lying. He pardoned Michael Flynn for lying. If people lied to the FBI, they should go to jail, um, but at the beginning of the Russian investigation, I said that any allegations should be investigated. We couldn't have known for example, people were lying to Christopher Steele. So it was proper to investigate them, and let's not forget what we learned in that investigation. We learned that the Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was giving internal polling data, campaign polling data to Russian intelligence while Russian intelligence was helping the Trump campaign.
As Ortagus pointed out Manafort was fired halfway through the campaign, Schiff doubled down on his unproven claim that Trump was trying to get Russia’s help. But Ortagus wouldn’t let him dodge responsibility. She pressed again:
“You saw this information for years by promoting this. That's what Republicans and what people who entrusted you as the Intel Committee chair are so confused about your culpability in all of this,” she stated.
Schiff again denied any responsibility for spreading misinformation and lies. “I completely disagree with the premise,” he said, claiming the only one guilty was the lying informant.
“Let's not use that as a smokescreen to somehow shield Donald Trump's culpability for inviting Russia to help him in the election, which they did...None of that serious misconduct is in any way diminished by the fact that people lied to Christopher Steele,” the Democrat argued.
“No. I think just your credibility is [diminished],” Ortagus shot back.
Schiff got the last word. “I think the credibility of your question is in doubt,” he snarked.
After the audience full of Schiff fans loudly clapped at that absurd dodge, Sunny Hostin helped Schiff out again by asking if charges were going to be brought against Republicans in Congress over the January 6 riot.
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Read the transcript below:
The View
11/9/21
MORGAN ORTAGUS: Yeah. I want to ask you about something that's in the news a lot right now. You have been really prolific being the head of the Intel committee. You defended and promoted and even read into the congressional record the Steele dossier. And we know the main source was indicted by the FBI for lying about most of the key claims in that dossier. Do you have any reflections on your role in promoting this to the American people?
ADAM SCHIFF: Well, first of all whoever lied to the FBI or lied to Christopher Steele should be prosecuted and they are, and unlike in the Trump administration, if they're convicted, they should go to jail and not be pardoned. So Donald Trump pardoned Roger Stone for lying. He pardoned Michael Flynn for lying. If people lied to the FBI, they should go to jail, um, but at the beginning of the Russian investigation, I said that any allegations should be investigated. We couldn't have known for example, people were lying to Christopher Steele. So it was proper to investigate them, and let's not forget what we learned in that investigation. We learned that the Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was giving internal polling data, campaign polling data to Russian intelligence while Russian intelligence was helping the Trump campaign.
ORTAGUS: To be clear, he was fired halfway through the campaign.
SCHIFF: He may have been fired, but the effort to get Russian help continued, and even beyond getting Russian help, the president also sought to get --
ORTAGUS: You saw this information for years by promoting this. That's what Republicans and what people who entrusted you as the Intel Committee chair are so confused about your culpability in all of this.
SCHIFF: I completely disagree with the premise, and it's one thing to say they should be investigated and they were, and it's another thing we should have foreseen an advance that people were lying to Christopher Steele which is impossible of course to do. Let's not use that as a smoke screen to somehow shield Donald Trump's culpability for inviting Russia to help him in the election which they did, trying to force Ukraine into helping him in the next election, which he did, into inciting an insurrection which he did. None of that is undercut. None of that serious misconduct is in any way diminished by the fact that people lied to Christopher Steele.
ORTAGUS: No. I think just your credibility is.
SCHIFF: I think the credibility of your question is in doubt. [applause]
