ICYMI: Sen. Schiff Discusses Trump’s Rampant Corruption, the Democratic Party’s Midterm Agenda, and the Future of AI on CNN’s One Thing

Seattle, WA - In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), joined CNN's One Thing podcast with host David Rind at the 2026 Cascade PBS Ideas Festival to discuss the brazen and rampant corruption schemes of President Trump and his administration, and how the cost of that corruption is coming at the expense of the American people.

During the conversation, Senator Schiff also discussed the opportunities and challenges posed by AI, emphasizing that we must make sure Americans have access to and are able to live with dignity amid the technological transformation our society is undergoing.

Schiff also spoke about the Democratic Party's agenda heading into midterm elections, including lowering costs, building back an economy that works for everyone, and making the American dream feasible again.

Listen to the full interview here.

Key excerpts:

On the rampant corruption in President Trump's Justice Department:

[…] It is so transformed and ruinous right now. And in my old office, I think about a third of the officers quit. We see mass defections throughout the country. And for me, the canary in the coal mine happened very early in this iteration of the Trump administration, when something absolutely unthinkable happened to anyone that had ever served in the Justice Department. It was beyond comprehension, and that is the Justice Department sought to dismiss a corruption case against a major public official, the Mayor of New York, in order to secure his help in something completely unrelated, and that was enforcement of the immigration policies of the president. That was unimaginable prior to this administration, and as much as there are dark and bleak things to see every day with the kind of corruption of this administration, we can't ignore and shouldn't look away from the heroes that are also being revealed. And one of my favorites was one of the attorneys on that case, who had been, I think he was a Scalia clerk, very conservative, Federalist Society type, wrote to the Justice Department and said that 'I'm sure you can find some coward or some fool to dismiss this case, but it was never going to be me.'

On the cost of the president's corruption to the American people:

[…] You've got the billion-dollar ballroom, you've got the triumphal arch, which violates the law, by the way, because there's no Congressional approval. You've got all of the no-bid contracts around the fountains and the pools, they're spending $5 million to gild, literally gild horses on a statue. You've got the president buying Boeing stock before going to China and announcing a 200 aircraft deal with China, and you've got the president buying Oracle before the TikTok deal, you've got the president buying Nvidia before deciding that Nvidia can export its some of its advanced chips. This is just stuff we learned in May, and I do think it's important to not allow ourselves to be numb to this, this pillaging. But at the same time, the primary focus has to be on the fact that while the president is enriching himself and his family, he is doing nothing to address the problems of the American people.

[…] And the cost of corruption is, the president could care less about bringing down the cost of your food or your housing or your gas, he's too busy focused on improving his own economy. His personal economy is doing great. He's made more money in the first year of his administration than the rest of his life put together 10 times, and he can't be bothered to worry about your cost of living, and he tells you so. I mean, look how he's spending his time. He was out there again on the grounds of the construction of the ballroom, talking about the ballroom. If he spent half as much time on trying to help people afford the cost of living and bring prices down as he spends on that stupid ballroom. I mean, imagine this: we're in the midst of an economy that's simply not working for millions of Americans, and the president of the United States is building a golden ballroom. It's really incomprehensible.

On the opportunities and challenges that AI will bring:

There's certainly profound challenges, both with the data centers, and I've introduced a bill to ensure that these large data centers bring their own energy, that they don't socialize the costs of improvements that need to be made to the grid or regional infrastructure or transformers or other technologies. That they build in an excess capacity, so they can actually put power into the grid during surge times. This is obviously just one facet of the problem, you mentioned another, that is the environmental impacts.

[…] There are some new technologies that are mitigating the need for water, which is, I think, encouraging, but the broader concerns are still dominating. And in addition to the data center issue, you have the fact that these models are so advanced now they have far outpaced our cyber defenses. And you have the additional growing impact on the nature of work. I'm most particularly concerned about that impact.

[…] I think that AI and the transformation it will bring, presents both a danger and an opportunity, and the opportunity is to think anew about how our society works and how we make sure that people who are working and trying are able to enjoy a good quality of life. And that there is good and dignified work for people.

On Democrats' midterm agenda:

[…] And it is a failure of both parties that housing is unaffordable, that college is unaffordable, that young people need to get a mortgage on their education to go to school, that's on both parties. So, I totally understand the frustration, and I think there are people in our party who are speaking to that and speaking eloquently to that, but we need to do more than speak eloquently to it. We need to attack it with big ideas, with bold ideas, with non-incremental ideas. I think the reason we lost the last presidential election was because the Democratic Party became seen as the party of a deeply, deeply unsatisfactory status quo.

And we damn well better, when we take the majority, and even more so when we take the White House, be ready to move dramatically to move this country in a different direction, of making it possible for people to work hard and enjoy a good life and provide for themselves and their family. In a world that is now global, it is automated and is increasingly driven by AI, and we have absolutely got to meet that moment. And if we don't, there is nothing we can do that will put our democracy on solid ground. If the democracy isn't working for people, if people see the quality of life their parents had as better than what they have. Then all too many are going to entertain any demagogue who comes along promising they alone can fix it.

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