Schiff: ‘Unforgivable’ the Degree To Which Republicans ‘Prostrate Themselves’ Before Trump

MARGARET BRENNAN: Kevin McCarthy the Republican leader has called for your recusal saying that because you had contact with Michael Cohen that- that you should not be directly involved in these investigations any longer and that you set that standard. How do you respond to that?

REP. SCHIFF: Well, it- it’s pretty frivolous. What McCarthy is upset about is that I invited Michael Cohen to testify and that he accepted, and our staff sat down and interviewed him before his testimony. That’s what you do in any credible investigation. Bob Mueller’s team sat down with—

MARGARET BRENNAN: Was that the extent of your contact?

REP. SCHIFF: —Michael Cohen seven times. The extent of my contact was just inviting him to testify and also trying to allay his concerns about the President’s threats against him and his family, but our staff certainly sat down to interview him and that’s what you do in any credible investigation. Mr. McCarthy, I think, can be forgiven for not knowing how to run a credible investigation for the last two years. They did none. But one thing that I think is really unforgivable and that’s the degree to which Mr. McCarthy and others have prostrate themselves before this president, and not just in the Russia investigation but even more significantly now with this emergency declaration, which is a- an attack on the Congress’s power of the purse. And for Kevin McCarthy, as the Republican leader, to go along with that, to so debase himself before this president at the cost of our institution—

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.

REP. SCHIFF: —I think, is unforgivable.