Schiff: Campaigns shouldn’t be allowed to get foreign help
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Sunday that Congress should consider legislation that would make it illegal for political campaigns to seek assistance from foreign governments to influence American elections.
The remarks from the California Democrat came after Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, announced that he intended to travel to Ukraine to encourage the country’s new leadership to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. On Friday, Giuliani reversed himself, though he indicated he might have visited Kiev under the right circumstances: “I’ve decided I’m not going to go because I’m walking into a group of people that are enemies of the president.”
Biden, a presidential candidate, is the early front-runner in the 2020 Democratic primary to challenge Trump’s reelection bid.
“Going after his son is just a method of going after someone the president believes is his most formidable opponent,” Schiff told host George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.”
“So, yes, let the president go after him, but don't seek the help of a foreign government in your election.”
Schiff also said lawmakers should take up measures that would prohibit future coordination between political campaigns and foreign governments, after special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to affect the outcome of the 2016 White House race.
“If this isn't criminal, and Bob Mueller said he could not prove all the elements of a crime, then maybe we need to change the elements of that crime,” Schiff said. “Because we cannot make this the new norm, that if you can't win an election on your own, it's fine to seek help from a foreign power.”
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine