Trump must be cut off from intelligence briefings, Rep. Adam Schiff says

Regardless of the outcome of his impeachment trial, President Donald Trump should immediately be cut off from intelligence briefings, said the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

“There’s no circumstance in which this president should get another intelligence briefing,” Rep. Adam Schiff said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “I don’t think he can be trusted with it now, and in the future.”

Some intelligence partners had “probably” started withholding information from the U.S. because they feared their sources and methods wouldn’t be safeguarded, Schiff said.

"There is no circumstance in which this president should get another intelligence briefing, not now and not in the future," @RepAdamSchiff to @margbrennan https://t.co/h23FKk8znS pic.twitter.com/xNXjxzEVpO

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) January 17, 2021

His comments echoed those of Sue Gordon, the former principal deputy director of national intelligence, who wrote a Washington Post op-ed last week arguing Trump should be cut off from intelligence.

Ron Klain, the incoming White House chief of staff, said Sunday on CNN that Biden will wait for a recommendation from his advisers on the issue.

With the articles of impeachment still to be sent to the Senate, Dick Durbin of Illinois said his fellow Democrats should “follow their own conscience” on whether to support conviction of Trump on charges of inciting an insurrection.

The No. 2 Senate Democrat said he hasn’t told members of his party how to vote in the upcoming trial. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Durbin said he agrees with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s position that the vote is an “issue of conscience.”

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin says he will not be whipping votes for President Trump's second impeachment trial. “When it comes to an issue of this gravity and constitutional importance, members really have to follow their own conscience." #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/7jQxe9Acml

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) January 17, 2021

It’s unclear if at least 17 Republicans would vote with Democrats to reach the two-thirds majority needed to find Trump guilty. McConnell has said he’s undecided. Most Republicans in the House voted against impeachment.

A conviction would allow for a simple majority vote to prohibit Trump from running for office again, though some legal scholars say this could be done outside the impeachment process.

“This was a traumatic event for many members of Congress,” Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

"I want to be a new voice for the Republican Party," @RepNancyMace (R-SC) says. "That's one of the reasons I've spoken out so strongly against the president, against these QAnon conspiracy theorists that led us into a constitutional crisis."https://t.co/7ND7DXFM2d pic.twitter.com/rtDepssBgx

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 17, 2021

Mace said while it’s “complicated” to attempt to ban Trump from ever holding federal office again without a conviction, she is encouraged that it may be possible. “We do need to find a way to hold the president accountable,” she said.