WATCH: Sen. Schiff Slams “Massive Fraud and Waste” at Homeland Security Department on CNN Following Kristi Noem’s Hearing

Schiff also spoke about the Senate's upcoming Iran War Powers Resolution vote: "The president needs to come to Congress and make the case and seek an authorization."

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined CNN's The Lead with Jack Tapper to discuss Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. During the hearing, Schiff urged Noem to justify her corrupt sweetheart deals, which amount to tens of millions of taxpayer dollars spent on a federal contract for allies of Noem's inner circle.

Schiff also discussed the upcoming vote on the War Powers Resolution, which he introduced with Senators Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and called on the Trump administration to come to Congress, make a case to the American people, and seek an authorization for war. Following the Senate's classified briefing on military operations in Iran, Schiff noted that he "asked, what is the imminent threat that justified going to war with Iran? And got the same conflicting explanations, one which contradicted the president from just today."

View the full interview here.

Key Excerpts:

On Noem's unwillingness to apologize for calling Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti domestic terrorists:

I thought it was pretty shameful. Yes, certainly things are chaotic. That means you take your time to get it right before you tell the American people something that proves to be utterly false. I asked her, how can we have any confidence in an investigation led by your department or the Department of Justice, if you predetermine the outcome, if you tell the country that these people are domestic terrorists. I think the main takeaway from the hearing is nothing has changed at DHS. Certainly, the leadership has. Certainly, their willingness to use force without independent investigation when they do hasn't changed. Their willingness to deploy massive numbers of agents in indiscriminate sweeps, sweeping up citizens and non-citizens alike has not changed, will not change under this leadership, unless we change it.

On the massive amounts of waste, fraud and abuse at DHS under Noem's leadership:

[…] One other thing became abundantly clear, and that is there is massive fraud and waste going on within that department. Hundreds of millions of dollars in sweetheart deals going out to people like the PR team that's doing her ads, that also did her ads in South Dakota. But those ads now purportedly for DHS but featuring Kristi Noem on horseback and Kristi Noem on a helicopter and Kristi Noem God knows where else. Those are paid for by taxpayers. So, if that department wants to look for waste and abuse. It can look within the department.

On the War Powers Resolution vote on Trump's military operations in Iran:

[…] I made this point in our closed session. I asked, what is the imminent threat that justified going to war with Iran? And got the same conflicting explanations, one which contradicted the president from just today. That is, we had to go to war with Iran because Israel was going to and if we didn't, then Iran might attack us. The president said, no, he didn't have his hand forced by Israel. He forced Israel's hand. So, which is it? And the other argument made by Secretary Rubio that we had to go to war now, because years from now, Iran may pursue a bomb and if we let their domestic missile production continue, it will be more difficult to take out their bomb later. So, if that's the argument for an imminent threat, that is a threat that is years away, that we need to neutralize now, that is the antithesis of imminent. So, I hope we have the votes tomorrow. But we're going to keep at this, because, sadly, this president has grown way too fond of war. And unless the Congress stops him, we're going to see this over and over and over again.

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