{"id":2446561,"date":"2019-07-20T22:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-21T04:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/congressman-adam-schiff-talks-democracy-2020-elections-in-aspen-security-forum-finale\/"},"modified":"2019-07-20T22:56:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-21T04:56:00","slug":"congressman-adam-schiff-talks-democracy-2020-elections-in-aspen-security-forum-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/congressman-adam-schiff-talks-democracy-2020-elections-in-aspen-security-forum-finale\/","title":{"rendered":"Congressman Adam Schiff talks democracy, 2020 elections in Aspen Security Forum finale"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Congressman Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, talks with moderator Kristen Welker of NBC News as part of the Aspen Security Forum on Saturday, July 20, 2019, inside the Greenwald Pavilion in Aspen. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Congressman Adam Schiff voiced his concern of a failing democracy in the United States and took plenty of opportunities to call out the president when he spoke Saturday in the final significant event of this year\u2019s Aspen Security Forum inside the Greenwald Pavilion.<\/p>\n

Schiff, who is the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, talked about defending the U.S. against foreign adversaries, touching on topics such as the increased hostilities with Iran and the Mueller report. Kristen Welker of NBC News moderated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability that we have to champion democracy around the world is inextricably tied to the idea of what America is and who we are,\u201d Schiff said. \u201cMy broadest concern is the ideological struggle that we are in between democracy and authoritarianism. We have seen a real rise of autocracy around the world. This would normally be resisted by the full force of the president and presidency and the state department. And it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schiff, who is a democrat, said he isn\u2019t particularly confident in the U.S.\u2019s ability to prevent other countries, notably Russia, from meddling in the 2020 elections. More so, he said he\u2019s concerned about the current administration\u2019s apathy toward the interference and views it as a threat to democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time the president says this is a hoax, every time he talks to (Russian President Vladimir Putin) and says this is a hoax, he is essentially telling the perpetrator of the last attack that they are invited to do it again as long as it\u2019s on his side,\u201d Schiff said. \u201cRussia is using its own malevolent interference to undermine democracies, but probably nothing is more worrisome than our own actions to undermine our own democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without saying it directly, Schiff questioned President Donald Trump\u2019s leadership tactics in regards to international relations. Despite the president\u2019s outwardly friendly approach to North Korea, the Asian country remains as much of a threat at it ever has. Schiff worries that a similar tactic with Iran could lead to increased conflict, even though he also believes neither side truly wants war.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithstanding the love affair and the love letters and the walks in the park and the handholding, North Korea still is building bombs and making missiles. Maybe we have a breakthrough with Iran,\u201d Schiff said. \u201cI don\u2019t think for the most part Iran wants war with the United States and I think for the most part the president doesn\u2019t want war with Iran. The bigger risk is that we blunder our way into war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his concerns, Schiff feels good about the democrat\u2019s chances in next year\u2019s elections. He said the key is getting people to vote and urged his party to make that their focus, instead of the current inter-party battles going on between candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing about being a democrat right now is we are in control of our own destiny. If we turn out democratically inclined voters, we win. If we don\u2019t, we lose. It\u2019s on us,\u201d Schiff said. \u201cAny difference between the most progressive and the most moderate of democrats is nothing compared to all of our differences with this president. I am counting at the end of the day in Donald Trump being the great unifier of the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congressman Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, talks with moderator Kristen Welker of NBC News as part of the Aspen Security Forum on Saturday, July 20, 2019, inside the Greenwald Pavilion in Aspen. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times Congressman Adam Schiff voiced his concern of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 16:32:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}