'The bigger the sycophant, the higher you rise': Adam Schiff knocks Trump's picks

Source: ABC News

December 15, 2024, 12:00 PM


Newly sworn-in Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., criticized president-elect Donald Trump's selections to fill out his administration and said he doesn't think President Joe Biden should issue preemptive pardons as he leaves office. "The precedent of giving blanket pardons, preemptive blanket pardons on the way out of an administration, I think, is a precedent we don't want to set," Schiff told anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview Sunday on "This Week."

Schiff also responded to Trump's promise to pardon some Jan. 6 offenders. "The American people, I think, voted for him in part because they wanted something done about crime," he said. "Not because they wanted to see him pardon criminals attacking the government."

FBI Director Christopher Wray announced last week that he'll resign at the end of Biden's term after Trump announced he had selected hardliner Kash Patel for the position. Asked if Trump's threats to go after his political enemies worry him, Schiff pointed to Patel's nomination as reason for concern.

"I think if Patel is the director of the FBI, then all bets are off," he said. Schiff said Patel demonstrated a theme he saw during Trump's first term. "And that is, you rise to the level of your sycophancy," he said. "The bigger the sycophant, the higher you rise."

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