Rep. Adam Schiff to Bill Maher: Democrats Should Support 'Any Living Adult 2020' to Beat President Donald Trump
In an interview on Bill Maher's HBO show Real Time, California Congressman Adam Schiff joked about the crowded field of candidates angling for the Democratic ticket and said he's rooting for "any living adult' that can beat President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
"I'll tell you who I'm behind in 2020, and I'm behind them heart and soul: Any living adult 2020," Schiff told Maher during a roving 10-minute interview. "Anyone who gets the nomination, we all need to get behind, whether we were for them or not for them."
The quip came on the heels of former Vice President Joe Biden officially launching his bid for the ticket on Friday, joining a slate that already includes Senators Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, as well as South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke — and several others.
Throughout most of the interview, Maher and the congressman, who also serves as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, debated the best method for ousting Trump from the Oval Office.
Schiff reiterated previous statements in which he advised against impeachment and instead argued that Democrats should look ahead to the upcoming election. He further admitted that impeachment was a thorny issue: If the Democrat-controlled House did successfully impeach Trump, removing a sitting president from office would still require the approval of two-thirds of the Senate, where the GOP holds a slender 53-47 majority.
"Here's the awful dilemma that we face: if we don't impeach him, that sends a message that this kind of conduct—this obstruction of justice, this [willingness] to use of the help of a foreign adversary, all the lies and cover-up—that this is non-impeachable," he said. "At the same time, if we do impeach him, and he is acquitted—as he would likely be acquitted— then the message is: those are non-impeachable offenses."
He continued: "There's only one way to deal with this problem, whether we impeach him or not, and that's to vote his ass out of office."
Schiff also said he's been dolling out advice to Democratic colleagues entering the race: "don't talk about Russia."
It was perhaps Schiff's most surprising comment of the evening, considering the elected has arguably been the loudest voice in Congress to accuse Trump of obstruction of justice in relation to the special counsel's report into 2016 election meddling. The report, released two weeks ago, found no evidence of criminal collusion between the Trump camp and Russian nationals, but did outline 10 instances in which the president's actions "were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations."
"You're not going to persuade people to vote Democrat or Republican by talking about Russia," he said when Maher noted Schiff's elaborate punditry on that sole issue. "Now, I get asked about it because [the House Intelligence Committee's investigation] over the last two years was the only investigation into what Russa did, and people asked me about it. But What I urge the candidates and I urge our nominees to talk about it is, how are you going to help American people put bread on the table?"
He went on to advocate for more discussions about automation, globalization of the economy and rising populism and xenophobia.
"Addressing those challenges," he said, "that's what we need to be talking about."
Watch the full interview in the above video.
