Schiff: AG Barr Is Just Flat-Out Lying to the American people’ About China Election Threat

House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) accused Attorney General William Barr of lying to the American people about the threat level China poses to the U.S. election Sunday on CNN.

Reacting to a CNN clip of Barr saying China is engaged the most aggressive election interference, Schiff said, “That’s just a plain false statement by the attorney general, a flat-out false statement. Interestingly some other administration officials have been trying to mislead the public by saying China is the bigger threat to the country in speaking of global terms because of the rising power of China. They’re using that answer in response to questions about the election, but they’re at least careful in their misleading the public by not saying that they’re a greater threat to the election. They’re saying generically that they’re a bigger threat. But what Bill Barr just did in that statement was just flat-out mislead the American people with a blatantly false statement. Joe Biden has been briefed as well as our committees, and he acknowledged as much the other day. It’s just such a disservice to the country that we can’t trust our own attorney general, but apparently, Bill Barr is willing to do anything or say anything to help Donald Trump.”

Anchor Dana Bash said, “You’re basically saying he’s lying.”

Schiff said, “Well, that’s basically what he’s doing. And I hesitate to say that, but it is the reality. Bill Barr isn’t going to itemize the intelligence because it’s just a flat-out false statement.”

Bash said, “And you’re confident that you have seen the intelligence that he has seen, and you’ve come to clearly a different conclusion and that conclusion being it is Russia that is far more active in trying to sow disinformation, misinformation in this election more than China?”

Schiff said, “Yes. And if fact, if you look at what the Intelligence Director Evanina, who runs the National Counterintelligence Center, what he said in his public written statement, he said that Russia was actively interfering, actively engaging across a range of measures to influence the outcome. China had a preference. And if you look at that, you can tell that Bill Barr is just flat-out lying to the American people, and — and it’s tragic, but it’s as simple as that.”

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