Congressman Adam Schiff at today's National Press Club briefing/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has a few thoughts on Trump's courtship of despotic rulers which he delivered today at a briefing at the National Press Club.
The president makes "common cause" with despots, Schiff said, creating "a great and grave threat to the United States."
Today's world is "a challenge to democracy," and "a dangerous time" he said more than once.
He cited autocratic rulers in Turkey, Egypt, Hungary, the Philippines, and Brazil with growing evidence that France, Germany, Austria, and others are headed in the direction to elect despots.
The world is trending towards "authoritarianism."
Members of Congress, including Congressman Schiff, believe Trump's actions are driven by financial gain for himself and his family which explains their relationship with Saudi Arabia and Moscow where the Trump tower would have landed Trump the "most lucrative deal" probably of his lifetime.
While campaigning for the presidency in 2016 and extolling the virtues of Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Trump denied working with the Russians to seal his tower deal but then later admitted to it: "'It's not a crime,'" Cong. Schiff quoted Trump: "'If I lost the election, I would have lost the deal.'"
When later questioned by a member of the audience about the committee's attention to the Moscow tower deal, Schiff answered: "Where does it lead?" What other deals is Trump cooking up with different nations? Russia has shown "how easy" it is to establish a relationship with Trump and his family.
The financial connection to North Korea ("irrational and dangerous") is unknown, Schiff said, but Trump is "desperate to get a deal done with North Korea which he can say is the greatest deal since 'sliced bread.'"
Who would have ever dreamed the president of the United States would say he admires the North Korean dictator? Schiff asked.
While Congress seeks to protect the interests of the American people, Trump seeks to protect his own interests.
In the question and answer session which followed Schiff's remarks, he said Trump "projects his own lack of ethics" on everyone else. "'Everyone does it,'" Schiff quoted Trump whose unethical practices are acceptable to the president and his team.
Trump's message to the Russians seems to be: "Russia, if you are listening and want to intervene in our elections, come on over and participate, but only if you're nice to me."
The Kremlin, Schiff said, tried to cover up its dealings with Trump.
What's scarier than Russian sabotaging U.S. elections, is "deepfake" technology which, Schiff said, "I am most fearful of."
That's when creators make fake videos and make them appear real as in the case of the slow video released last month of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi which tried to make her appear drunk.
It takes a while to analyze and determine legitimacy of "deepfakes." (Samsung's was developed at its Moscow center.)
What happens if a "deepfake" candidate emerges days or weeks before an election, and there's no time to find if it is real? Although viewers may quickly learn it is "fake," it is still difficult to divorce oneself from the visuals, Schiff said.
"Deepfakes" are inherently more disruptive than "hacking and dumping," he said several times. "A.I. [artificial intelligence] is good enough to fool us." There's "a lion's dividend for those who lie."
"We have a president that claims the Access Hollywood tape is fake" (when Trump was caught on tape bragging about grabbing women's genitalia) but Trump says the slow video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appearing drunk is real.
His staff touts "alternative facts" and "'truth isn't truth.'"
Some "immediate threats on the horizon," Schiff said, involve Iran and its aggressive posture. Most assuredly it is Iran attacking ships, actions which "our allies" have been predicting for two years.
Trump attacks our allies so where are our allies when we need them? Nowhere to be found.
"We can't be going this [way] alone," Schiff said. The situation presents "incredible risks to our servicemen [sic] in the region."
He said "serious mental gymnastics" are necessary to figure out what the administration's shuffling stance on Iran means.
While Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticizes Iran for threatening to abandon tenets of the nuclear treaty, Trump gave up the treaty a year ago. While Pompeo makes overtures to meet with Iran, National Security Advisor John Bolton arranges new sanctions against it.
Trump's Iranian policy is "incoherent." Schiff compared it to Mutt and Jeff since no one knows what anybody else is doing. "It's simply incoherence because that's been the pattern of this administration."
Schiff said he and others believe China is meant as a distraction from talk about all things Russian.
He called China's citizen watch to control its population with ubiquitous cameras and other means, "digital totalitarianism." Many younger Chinese do not know anything about Tiananmen Square.
Schiff described two revolutions that are happening now:
The change in the global economy and the increasing anxiety people feel about their economic futures.
Adding to the anxiety is fear and anger which race across social media.
On other subjects: the "second most dangerous" person in the U.S. is Attorney General Bill Barr. Robert Mueller will testify before Congress either voluntarily or by subpoena, Schiff said.
The congressman was smartly dressed as he always is: white shirt, coat and tie. He spoke eloquently during the hour-long session without notes, without looking down at the podium.
I don't believe he ever used the words "president" and "Trump" together, and he seldom used the word, "Trump." He always said "United States" and not "U.S."
Although NPC President Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak asked at the start of the program that all cell phones be silenced or turned off, about three went off during the presentation which started and ended on time. About 75 attended.
"Impeachment" never came up.
patricialesli@gmail.com
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