House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff encouraged Trump administration officials “of good conscience” on Wednesday to resign immediately.
Set off by President Trump refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the Nov. 3 election, the California Democrat issued his most urgent plea to date for people inside and out of government to speak out against a “would-be dictator.”
“Rachel, you are absolutely right to focus tonight on his words as well as his deeds. They do cross a very bright line,” he told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. “Over the course of this presidency, some of his supporters have been able to write off his remarks as ‘well, that’s just Trump being Trump,’ or ‘clearly, he was joking.’ There is no question that he means exactly what he said. And people fail to take that seriously at our national peril.”
Earlier, Trump was noncommittal when asked by a reporter at the White House if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power whether he wins, loses, or finds himself in a draw with former Vice President Joe Biden.
“We’re going to have to see what happens,” he said, before discussing his concerns about potential fraud with the widespread use of mail-in ballots during the coronavirus pandemic. “Get rid of the ballots, and … we’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There’ll be a continuation.”
Schiff reasoned that these comments should inspire a wave of defections from the government.
“This is a moment that I would say to any Republican of good conscience working in the administration, it is time for you to resign … If you have been debating about whether you continue to serve the country by serving this president, you can’t. It is time to resign,” he said. “And I would say to those who have been on the sidelines maintaining a dignified silence who have served in the administration in the past, you cannot maintain your silence any longer. You have to maintain dignified speech now. You have to speak out. Do not wait until after the election. Do not wait until we have the chaos the president wants after the election when he seeks to, as he said, get rid of the ballots. Because if you do wait, knowing what is to come, you will share some of the burden and responsibility for that chaos that comes.”
There has already been a steady trickle of former administration officials to speak out against Trump, including Olivia Troye, an adviser to Vice President Mike Pence for two years, and former Homeland Security Department senior official Miles Taylor, who joined CNN and is waging a campaign to get more silent Trump critics to take a stand. Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power also stoked outrage among Republicans in Congress, including Sen. Mitt Romney.
“Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable,” the Utah Republican and 2012 Republican presidential nominee tweeted.
Schiff described Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as being desperate to stay in power, “disenfranchising” people and “throwing out ballots” because they know they are in a “shrinking minority.” He argued there needs to be an “overwhelming” rebuke of Trump because only a landslide would provide a “clear path forward” and that anything short of that would “lead to disaster for the country and our democracy.”
