WATCH: Sen. Schiff Reacts to Postponement of Blanche Confirmation Vote on MS NOW

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined MS NOW's The Briefing with Jen Psaki to react to the postponement of the Judiciary Committee vote on Todd Blanche's nomination to be Attorney General.

Schiff emphasized Blanche's transformation of the Department of Justice (DOJ) into an agency representing the president instead of the American people, evident in cases like Trump's tax settlement with the IRS.

Schiff also highlighted the prosecution of former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) James Comey as another example of the weaponization of the Justice Department against the president's enemies.

View the full interview here.

Key Excerpts:

On the postponement of Blanche's confirmation vote:

[…] I think it's positive. I just hope that these two Senators, and in particular Senator Cornyn, don't settle for too little. This settlement, this bogus settlement that came from the president essentially suing himself, waiting till he was president. Then suing the IRS for $10 billion, so that he could get the IRS and the DOJ to agree to some incredibly wonderful, generous terms that he, his family, their associates, their businesses, the subsidiaries, etc. would all be immune from audit examination for anything that went before the signing of that document. This is to a guy who was a known tax cheater, so hugely valuable, potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars. That's just part of it. The other part is the slush fund for the cop beaters. And here's the deal: they're already paying off some of the president's supporters using the judgment fund. They've already paid off Michael Flynn. They really don't need a special slush fund to do it.

On the possible rejection of Blanche as Attorney General:

[…] People should understand that the president has been able to engage in so much over-the-top corruption because the Senate and the House are not acting as a check on his power the way the Founders contemplated. The significance of essentially defeating this high-level nominee is that the Congress is in a way back to doing its institutional job in rejecting purely unqualified people or people who should be disqualified for abusing the positions they already have. So, it's an important statement that Congress is not willing to roll over for this president on everything.

On the prosecution of James Comey:

This is a perfect segue from our conversation about Blanche, because here they - in these internal communications - are saying, mid-level people are saying, "We should not do this. This is not going to look well when it reaches the sunlight," and they do it anyway. They use these emergency authorities to do it anyway. And remember we've got Senators on the Judiciary Committee who are just irate that their telephone toll records were subpoenaed during the Jack Smith investigation. And by the way, for good reason, they're just incensed about that. But oh, they're okay with an improper emergency authority used to surveil a former FBI director because he's on the president's enemies list? That's okay? So, I think there are some common threads here. These internal records and just the facial invalidity of the indictment, I think, are going to get this case thrown out like the last bogus case against James Comey was thrown out.

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