Transcript of Senator Adam Schiff Discusses War Powers Resolution against Trump

Donald Trump is losing it after Republicans in the Senate seem to have turned against him on a vote about a War powers Resolution Act preventing Donald Trump from further action in Venezuela without Congressional approval. This War powers vote leads to another vote that needs to take place, but it was a 52 to 47 vote, a bipartisan vote. Here's what Donald Trump posted, Republicans should be ashamed of the senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our powers to fight and defend the United States of America. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again. This vote greatly hampers American self-defense and national security, impeding the President's authority as Commander-in-Chief. In any event, and despite their stupidity, the War powers act is unconstitutional, totally violating Article 2 of the Constitution, as all presidents and their Department of Justice have determined before me. Nevertheless, a more important Senate vote will be taking place next week on this very subject. And then thereafter, Donald Trump sent his architect, his new architect for the White House East Wing, to talk about demolishing the West Wing or rebuilding the West Wing now.

Those are what their priorities there, and I guess also oil companies being subsidized by the taxpayers to the tune of $100 billion or something like that. Let's bring in Senator Adam Schiff of California. Senator Schiff, you were the principal co-sponsor of Tim Caine's resolution here in this bill, this War powers Act resolution. Explain to us why it's so important, especially that it was passed on a bipartisan basis. If you can respond to Trump there, losing it and saying that this is unconstant war powers, this is unconstitution institutional, and that he has unfettered ability under Article 2 to, I guess, invade everybody? What do you make of it all?

Well, first of all, this began, as you know, with attacks on ships in the Caribbean. It was claimed by the administration that this was just about stopping stopping drugs from coming to this country, stopping fentanyl from coming here, even though fentanyl is not a drug transported by Venezuela by both the United States. It comes predominantly from Mexico with precursors made in China. But nevertheless, this was supposed This is not necessarily about drugs. I introduced the first War Power's resolution to put a stop to that. It got bipartisan support, but not enough. This is now the third resolution Tim Caine introduced. I was Principal Cosponsor on, to put an end to further military involvement in Venezuela because it's clear now this claim that this was about narcotics was a ruse. This is about oil. This is about oil. This is about seizing the oil reserves of a country that has some of the largest, if not the largest oil reserve in the world. And now the President is saying we could be there for years running that country. And I think, frankly, what the President has been saying is largely responsible for why Republican support for our resolution has grown because Republicans are deeply concerned that we're going to get bogged down in another endless war about oil.

And that is not what we want to see happen. It's not what the American people want to see happen. And For the President now to respond this way, basically threatening Republican members who supported this with defeat at the polls is at the one hand, typical Donald Trump. At the same time, it is not working because we're seeing an increasing number of Republicans in the Senate and actually today in the House on a different issue on the ACA tax credits. We're seeing them willing to depart from the President because I think, frankly, they're hearing from their voters, and they're responding to the concerns over another endless war in the case of the War Power's resolution in the Senate and high health care costs that Republicans are voting to address in the House.

When You don't even have to search for the needle in the haystack to figure out, Oh, this was about oil. I mean, Trump in the press conference said, This is about oil. We want their natural resources. I've heard some of your MAGA Republican colleagues, the big Trumper, say, We're the predators. This is what predators do in the Western hemisphere. We need to dominate. And then when Donald Trump has been asked, Do you have a plan for democracy in Venezuela? What are we going to do with the opposition Maria Karina Machado, anything there. Donald Trump's like, She doesn't have the respect of the people. He's hoisting up Delce Rodriguez, Maduro's right-hand, and Diasdado, the henchmen of Maduro. And the regime right now with the colectivos on the street are engaged in a massive repression campaign against any pro-opposition voices, and they're cementing their control. And so you look at it, it's like, so the outcome was basically to keep a Maduro person in power, just who's one you like better than Maduro who would give you the resources. And isn't that even clear? She seems to still be saying that she's going to have a relationship with Iran and China, and they certainly looked happy at her swearing in.

So talk to us about that as well.

Well, I think you're absolutely right about all of that to the degree that this was not about drugs, it was also not about democracy. They didn't even make any pretense that this was about restoring the rightful government, the government that we have recognized that is the government or potential government of Maria Karina Machado, who won that election, her surrogate, won that election, Oscar Gonzales. That is who should be brought back to Venezuela. But they have no intention of doing so. Instead, They're going to rely on the same corrupt regime, just a different corrupt actor. So instead of the number one corrupt actor, Maduro, they're going to rely on his number two, Rodriguez, the vice president, now acting President, because, again, this only about the oil, access to the oil. And the idea that somehow we're going to run this country at a distance by restraining their ability to sell oil, that they're going to go through some transition, that they're going to become a different government that all of the drug gangs and the muscle of the regime, Iran and Cuba and all the other foreign actors are simply going to dissipate is It's fanciful.

It isn't going to happen. You can just see us getting mired down in Venezuela, initially maybe putting diplomats on the ground, and then they need protection for the diplomats, and then all of a sudden we have boots on the ground. If anything, One of the commonalities within the public, a deeply divided public, but one of the commonalities between the Democratic base and the MAGA base is neither side wants to engage in another endless war that's about regime change, that's about nation building, and most particularly not if it's about oil. So I think we're going to see over time this has very little public support. I think that's what you're seeing Republican members react to in the Senate today.

You're a former federal prosecutor. You think about also what Maduro's main 12B6 motion to dismiss is going to be head of state immunity. And the Trump regime is going to argue you're a de facto head of state. You lost the election. You're not really in power. But then he's going to say, Well, Trump's also been calling me the President and the leader of Venezuela who he kidnapped. Then Trump has embraced my regime as the legitimate people in power. So if you're working with my crew, shouldn't I have head of state immunity? To me, it also, who knows what Judge Hellerstein is going to do in that case. But to me, it also isn't thought through from all these other areas as well. Then what? Trump just assumes the oil companies are going to be like, Yeah, Donald, we want to go in there. And that very muddy oil that requires $100 billion of investments, but now the taxpayers are going to subsidize this. There doesn't seem to be any thought, I guess, is what I'm saying, to any of this. And these types of decisions require thought. He's winging it like the student who shows up, having read the homework and gets called on.

And that's not how our government should be run.

No, absolutely not. And you've seen these shifting explanations and rationalizations, the most recent of which was this was just a law enforcement action. This was not a military intervention. This was not a war. This was just the military being used to escort the Justice Department in its enforcement of a warrant against Maduro. Of course, if that were the case, if that legal justification were really what was going on, this would be over by now. Maduro has been apprehended. He's been brought to court. Therefore, the warrant has been served, and there would be no need for any further military involvement. But of course, this is not about that. It's about the oil. As we were saying, it's not about democratic governance. Otherwise, and I think I said Oscar, but Edmund Gonzales, the one that we have recognized as having won the last election, would be brought back to lead the government. But that is obviously not happening. I will say this for a President who dissembles all the time who has no loyalty, obedience, or understanding of the truth. He's nevertheless been transparent about one thing, and that is he has talked about oil, I think more than two dozen times since this military operation and made it very clear what this is about.

So I take him at his word on this, that it's about the oil, that he intends to try to run that country, that this is going to be a long-term commitment. He also made that clear, that we're not We're talking about months, we're talking about years. I just think that the administration's expectation that all of this can happen magically without the necessity of Americans being fully involved without putting our service members at risk, without putting our treasury at risk, I think is just a farce. And sadly, we have failed to learn from the experience that we suffered in Iraq and have suffered other places.

Yeah, I think he's talked about oil more than the oil companies have talked about their own oil. I think they're like, Well, if you want us to go in, we're going to need to be subsidized because who's running the place? Is there going to be long term security? Who's going to be... And Trump's like, Yeah, we'll get rid of your Affordable Care Act subsidies in America. We'll screw up people's health care. But $100 billion for oil companies? Why not? $1. 5 trillion? Let's just make up another number and say that's going to be the budget without any explanation anyway. But before we go, I just want to I want to get your take on what's happening in South Minneapolis. Right now, you had J. D. Vance give this bizarre, dangerous press conference where he again called the deceased lady, the mother of three, Renee Nicole Good. They called her a domestic terrorist and again defaming her as well. What do you make of all that?

It's just so heartbreaking, so traumatizing to see this 37-year-old mother gunned down. There she is, and all I can judge from is the video that I think most of us have seen now. Initially, she's waving on other cars to go drive past. She wants to make sure her car is not in the way. And then things escalate, and she's shot and killed. And this is, I think, yet another vivid demonstration of how the administration's deployment of ICE and the tactics being used by ICE are endangering our communities. And now they're doubling down. They're sending more ICE agents to Minnesota. They want the provocation, and this is not going to end. They're going to continue doing this, wreaking havoc in our cities. They want the confrontation. What a horrible disservice, and what a horrible tragedy. And I hope Minnesota will insist on being part of that investigation. You certainly cannot trust Christine Noem or anything she says or does. Sadly, you can't trust an FBI investigation led by Cash Patel. Minnesota needs to have its own role. That investigation needs to have access to the witnesses and the evidence. I think it's the only way that we're going to get a just conclusion and make sure that if that investigation confirms that this agent used excessive deadly force, that there are real consequences for that.

I'm sorry, Senator. Before we go, really quickly, as a federal prosecutor, I got to get your take on what they're doing by covering up these Epstein files, because you've dealt with large document productions, and this DOJ isn't even speaking the language of ESI, electronically started from... Like nothing that they even said from the beginning with a few hundred thousand records just never made sense to me, given the size of cases I handled, where there were terabytes of documents and financials and all of these things. What do you make of the latest round of cover up in the violation of the Epstein Transparency and the way the DOJ is going about it as someone who is a former federal prosecutor?

Well, I think what they've decided to do is make sure that they go through whatever materials they have and insulate the President in every way that they can, and they will They will draw this out, and they are drawing it out. The idea that they suddenly discovered that there were hundreds and hundreds of thousands of more documents that were in the possession of the Southern district of New York as if they hadn't done that inventory. Look, maybe it is the fact that they, to some degree, just didn't want to look, didn't want to see, didn't want to find out. Now they're legally required to, and they're Stonewalling. We're just going to keep forcing this issue and pressing this issue to make sure the truth comes out. The victims deserve nothing less, and the law requires it.

Senator Schiff, thanks for joining us.

Thank you.

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