WATCH: Sen. Schiff Denounces Trump’s Misuse of the Military in Los Angeles, Talks Trump’s Campaign of Retribution

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined CNN's OutFront with Erin Burnett to call out President Trump's wasteful use of military resources by deploying the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles and underscore the new court ruling that determined the administration violated federal law when it deploying the Guard - especially in light of Trump's threats to deploy the Guard to other cities across the country.

Schiff also discussed Trump's pattern of political retribution against his perceived political enemies.

View the full interview here.

Key Excerpts:

On the need to push back against Donald Trump's misuse of the military for political spectacle:

[…] I think that this case, this new ruling by the judge, is more likely to be upheld. And I say that because the judge did a multi-day factual hearing to determine were these military forces being used for law enforcement, and they were. That is now the factual record, and it is plainly unlawful to use the military for domestic law enforcement. And I think the judge was exactly right in declaring the president's intention, which is to establish some kind of a national police force with him as the chief. So, legal recourse is really the only recourse until my Republican colleagues in the Senate decide they're going to stand up to the lawlessness of this president. Sadly, we see no evidence of that. They seem quite content to let the president break law after law.

On the waste of taxpayer resources from Trump's deployment of the National Guard:

[…] It was completely unnecessary. We didn't need the National Guard, thousands of National Guard troops activated for this purpose, something that, frankly, takes them away from doing work fighting fires, doing the work that our military is called upon to do as a military force, not as a civilian force. To deploy Marines to Los Angeles for that purpose was also another waste of military resources. And what's more, it squanders the goodwill of the National Guard. In California, we love the National Guard. We value them for their heroic efforts during times of natural disaster, but this really polarizes the public with respect to the Guard.

On Trump's campaign of retribution:

[…] This is not about my mortgage or Lisa Cook's mortgage, or Letitia James, the Attorney General of New York's mortgage. This is about political payback and political attacks. In the case of Lisa Cook, he couldn't get the interest rates lowered, so he threatened her with investigation. In my case, he's threatening me with investigation, because I led his first impeachment and served on the January 6 Committee.

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