U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) called on the intelligence agencies to “dumb down” their upcoming briefings for President Trump during an appearance on “Meet The Press” Sunday.
If Trump secured the Republican nomination — which he is widely expected to do — he will begin to receive intelligence briefings once again. “Meet The Press” anchor Kristen Welker asked Schiff for his thoughts on the matter on Sunday.
“This weekend, U.S. intelligence officials are planning to provide briefings for Donald Trump. One will see if he officially secures the nomination despite the fact that he’s facing 40 felony charges for his handling of classified documents as the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, do you think it’s appropriate for him to receive intelligence briefings?” she asked.
“Well, then that is the practice but we never had a situation where one of the candidates for president has been so criminally negligent when it comes to handling if not worse when it comes to handling classified information,” Schiff replied.
“So I have to hope, knowing the intelligence community as i do that they will dumb down the briefing for Donald Trump. That is they will give him no more information than absolutely necessary, nothing that would reveal sources or methods because we can’t trust that he will do the right thing with information,” he continued. “He’s been so reckless. So yes, it does concern me. It is part of a long tradition they will be wary of what they share with him and they should.”
As the ranking member and later chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Schiff repeatedly claimedthat the panel had seen an “abundance” of evidence indicating “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence agencies.
This claim has since been proven false numerous times, including testimony from Russia probe special counsel Robert Mueller. After investigating Trump and his associates for 22 months, Mueller was unable to find any evidence supporting the grand claims made by Schiff and other leading Democrats.