© Screenshot/NBC News/"Meet the Press"
Schiff appeared on "Meet the Press" to discuss his recent win in advancing to the general election for potentially filling late Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein's seat and his future campaign plans. NBC host Kristen Welker questioned Schiff on Trump's potential intelligence briefing by U.S. officials as the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee before being replaced by former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
"Congressman, let me ask you about this development this weekend. U.S. intelligence officials are planning to provide briefings for Donald Trump 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?" Welker questioned.
Schiff stated that while briefing presidential nominees is a "long tradition," the California senator hoped the intelligence community would give Trump "no more information than absolutely necessary." Schiff noted that his reasoning was due to the fact that no candidate had ever been "so criminally negligent."
"Well, that is the practice, but we've 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 stated. "So I have to hope and 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 that information. 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."
McCarthy pushed to remove Schiff from his position as the chair of the Intelligence Committee due to his defense of the discredited Steele dossier, which Democrats had pushed as evidence of Trump's alleged corruption with Russia.
"Schiff has lied to the American public...," McCarthy stated at the time of Schiff's removal.
While Trump has been indicted by Special Counsel Jack Smith for allegedly mishandling classified documents, the trial has yet to be scheduled. The former president presented oral arguments early March to Judge Aileen Cannon in order to push the trial off till after the 2024 election.
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