Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) isn’t going to let President-elect Donald Trump discourage him from doing his job in Congress.
During a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Schiff appeared unwavering when asked if he was worried about being targeted by Trump and his vows to retaliate against his political opponents.
After host Kristen Welker shared a clip of Trump comparing Schiff and other Democrats to “the enemy from within,” the newly elected senator dismissed Trump’s “dictator talk” while warning Americans of the dangers of having an aspiring strongman in office.
“Well, that’s dictator talk. That’s how autocrats talk,” Schiff said. “They want to make their political opposition an enemy, describe them in those terms. But look, I’m not concerned about myself. I’m going to do my job. I’m not going to have his threats intimidate me from doing so.”
However, the California congressman said the Republican’s rhetoric should be cause for concern.
“Anytime you have someone that — particularly someone who’s going to become president of the United States — fawning over dictators, emulating their language, attacking the press, undermining our institutions — yeah, we should be concerned about it,” Schiff said. “Because at the end of the day, it means that the American people will suffer.”
He went on to tell Welker that he believes American voters aren’t looking to see an autocrat in the Oval Office, despite Trump’s unbridled calls for retribution against his enemies.
“The American people, I think, voted on the basis of the economy,” he said. “They wanted change to the economy. They weren’t voting for dictatorship. So, I think he is going to misread his mandate if that’s what he thinks voters chose him for.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Schiff tried to contend with Democrats’ defeat on Election Day.
Pointing to a global trend of incumbents losing ground in recent elections, he said, “Ultimately, what we saw both in this country and around the world was a very strong anti-incumbent wave that took out both progressives and conservatives.”
Democracy In The Balance
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“And our party became associated with the status quo, and that was too much to overcome,” he added.