"This is also a story about money — about greed and corruption." Rep. Adam Schiff eviscerated President Trump during former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's hearing on Wednesday.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Lies. Lies about a gleaming tower. Lies about the firing of an anti-terrorist. Lies about secret negotiations. Lies to the FBI. Lies to your staff. And lies to this committee.
00:18Your report, for those who have taken the time to study it, is methodical and it is devastating.
00:24It tells the story of a foreign adversary's sweeping and systematic intervention in a close U.S. presidential election.
00:32The story of the 2016 election is also a story about disloyalty to country, about greed, and about lies.
00:41Disloyalty to country. Those are strong words, but how else are we to describe a presidential campaign
00:48which did not inform the authorities of a foreign offer of dirt on their opponent, which did not publicly shun it or turn it away,
00:56but which instead invited it, encouraged it, and made full use of it.
01:01This is also a story about money, about greed and corruption, about the leadership of a campaign willing to compromise the nation's interest
01:10not only to win, but to make money at the same time.
01:14And about a candidate trying to make more money than all of them put together through a real estate project that to him was worth a fortune,
01:21hundreds of millions of dollars, and the realization of a lifelong ambition, a Trump Tower in the heart of Moscow.
01:30A candidate who, in fact, viewed his whole campaign as the greatest infomercial in history.
01:37But the story doesn't end here either, for your report also tells a story about lies.
01:44Lots of lies. Lies about a gleaming tower in Moscow and lies about talks with the Kremlin.
01:50Lies about the firing of FBI Director James Comey and lies about efforts to fire you, Director Mueller, and lies to cover it up.
01:57Lies about secret negotiations with the Russians over sanctions and lies about WikiLeaks.
02:02Lies about polling data and lies about hush money payments.
02:05Lies about meetings in the Seychelles to set up secret back channels and lies about a secret meeting in New York Trump Tower.
02:12Lies to the FBI, lies to your staff, and lies to this committee.
02:18Your report laid out multiple offers of Russian help to the Trump campaign, the campaign's acceptance of that help,
02:24and overt acts in furtherance of Russian help.
02:27To most Americans, that is the very definition of collusion, whether it is a crime or not.
02:34Worse than all the lies and the greed is the disloyalty to country.
02:39When asked if the Russians intervene again, will you take their help, Mr. President?
02:45Why not, was the essence of his answer, everyone does it.
02:51No, Mr. President, they don't.
02:57Not in the America envisioned by Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton.
03:02Not for those who believe in the idea that Lincoln labored until his dying day to preserve.
03:07The idea that our government is chosen by our people, through our franchise, and not by some hostile foreign power.
03:16This is what is at stake.
03:18Our next election, and the one after that, for generations to come.
03:25Our democracy.
03:29This is why your work matters, Director Mueller.
03:32This is why our investigation matters.