Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday evening in an interview with the Washington Post that President Trump’s behavior as described by former FBI director James Comey in a prepared statement ahead of his testimony was “certainly evidence of interference or obstruction.”
“It is certainly evidence of interference or obstruction,” Schiff said adding, “the question I think is where does this action fit in with other actions of the president and what does the complete picture that emerges look like.”
Comey's statement says Trump told him he hoped he could “let go” of the FBI’s investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and details an exchange in which Trump asked for Comey’s "honest loyalty."
“I still think there’s a lot we don’t know obviously,” he emphasized, “there are some questions that did not get answered today that will have to be answered and I’m confident will be answered.”
Schiff said that his first reaction to the testimony was that “we can’t lose our capacity to be shocked by this. It’s a real risk that the president has so changed what we expected of a president of the United States that even when we view contact that seems to be such an anathema to the office we fail to be surprised.”
He also told the Washington Post’s David Ignatius that with President Trump he felt “like the proverbial spouse in a bad marriage who keeps thinking his spouse is going to change. Even now, against all reason I keep thinking, maybe he's going to change.”
“This isn't an act, this is who he is and he's not going to change,” he said. “Whatever attribute of character that makes him behave the way he does is not going to stop."