During an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Senator-elect Adam Schiff (D-CA) dismissed Donald Trump’s threats to prosecute members of the January 6th Committee, including himself, calling the accusations “baseless” and “without merit.”
Schiff responded to Trump’s recent comments in an NBC interview with Kristen Welker, where Trump claimed that Democrats on the January 6th committee had “illegally destroyed records” and insisted they “should all go to jail.”
MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski pressed Schiff for his reaction. “One of the things that he accused the committee of is illegally destroying records, among other things, along with saying that all should go to jail. What’s your response?”
Schiff scoffed at the allegations. “You know, I’ve seen him make that allegation before and candidly I don’t know what the heck he’s talking about,” he said. “Whether this is some crazy conspiracy theory that grew up online or whether it’s just something he’s making up. But it’s completely without merit and just, I think, another one of his baseless attacks on the work of the committee.”
Schiff suggested Trump’s frustration stems from being held accountable during the investigation. “His real grudge at the end of the day is he was exposed, and some of his own very top people held him mostly accountable, testified against him, and this is really where he’s coming from,” Schiff explained.
Taking aim at Trump’s fixation on the size of the crowd at his January 6 rally, Schiff added, “That and his other grievance, which I’ve heard repeated many, many times, is that he’s never gotten enough credit for the size of the crowd on January 6th, which you have to live in, I think, a pretty warped world to think that’s the most important point about January 6th that people are missing.”
Concluding his remarks, Schiff shrugged off Trump’s accusations as another baseless complaint. “This is just one of his meritless complaints and I don’t want to speculate about where it comes from,” he said.
Schiff’s response underscored his refusal to take Trump’s threats seriously while highlighting what he views as Trump’s ongoing attempts to rewrite the narrative of the January 6 Capitol assault. As Trump continues to target political opponents, Schiff made it clear that he sees such claims as little more than noise aimed at distracting the public.