House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) tipped his hand Wednesday, saying that he would use Tuesday’s testimony from intelligence chiefs to shoot down the rationale for a national emergency, should President Donald Trump try to use that card to fund a border wall.
“I will say this also that glaring absences that you talked about earlier—that none of the intel chiefs brought up a threat at the border as being one of the most pressing threats facing the country—that can be Exhibit A in a challenge of a national emergency,” Schiff said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “The fact that none of the intelligence agencies think it is an emergency, the fact that Congress on both parties don’t think this is an emergency…I think if anything it is going to undermine that legal case that the President may try to make, that hearing yesterday can be a central exhibit.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday with their annual assessment of global threats. The U.S.-Mexico border did not make the list.
Watch here:
Schiff suggests will use intel chiefs’ testimony if Trump tries national emergency card pic.twitter.com/XramYDqbk3
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) January 30, 2019
