we're following multiple breaking

stories including a source now telling

cnn to expect

a flurry of pardons from president trump

in the coming days

this comes as the white house is dodging

questions about reports the president

may actually be considering pardons

for his personal attorney rudy giuliani

and members of the first

family we're joined by the chairman of

the house intelligence committee

california democratic representative

adam schiff congressman

thanks so much for joining us if the

president

does indeed pardon let's say rudy

giuliani or any members of his family

would you see that and i asked preet

bharara this question

as essentially an admission of guilt

i certainly would view it that way i

think millions of americans would view

it that way

if there was no belief in criminality

why would he

think a pardon was necessary but

nonetheless you can see the president

trying to lay the foundation

for that kind of a inherently

self-dealing and i think corrupt act

by suggesting that uh you know vengeful

biden administration

bureaucrats might go after him uh so you

see him laying the foundation

and this is a president to you know on

the way into office

uh you know acted corruptly and i think

is determined on the way out to do the

same

in 2018 uh the president said i'm

quoting him now

i have the absolute right to pardon

myself

some of his allies are actually pushing

that he do just that

can he go ahead and pardon himself

before he leaves office

well you know he can try the question is

will it be null and void and i think the

answer is yes

he can say i hereby pardon myself but if

he is brought up on federal charges and

that's how that would be tested

it would ultimately be decided by the

supreme court

are you allowed to be the judge of your

own case is the president

effectively above the law and i think

any court

uh should resolve that and would resolve

that by saying no

uh the pardon power does not allow a

president to self-pardon because

to do so would make the constitution a

suicide pact

it would effectively undermine so many

other provisions of the constitution

including the one

that requires the president to

faithfully execute the laws

uh but uh but it hasn't been tried

before because we haven't had a

president corrupt enough to try it

before

uh so we'll we'll have to wait and see

whether it gets tested in court if

the president goes in that direction the

white house uh

congressman wouldn't say today if

president trump has confidence in the

attorney general of the united states

bilbao

after bard debunked the president's

election fraud claims

what does that tell you well

you know i think the attorney general

answered a question that many of us had

which is is there no line he is willing

to cross

uh to carry water for the president and

apparently there was a line

and that was the attorney general was

not going to join

completely fallacious claims of massive

fraud following our election

now he is willing to do other things

that are inappropriate and political and

partisan

like this secret appointment of durham

as a special counsel

in an effort i guess to placate any

members of the base that he will

alienate

by making the statement he did about the

elections but but nonetheless

uh i think it tells you that the circle

around the president

is willing to continue to engage in

these monstrously false claims of fraud

is a dwindling number of people and as i

pointed out yesterday and i think it's

very significant

i'll point it out again barr actually

said it's not just the department

of justice that found no evidence of

widespread fraud in the election

but it's also the department of homeland

security which investigated

found no evidence of widespread fraud

either

before i let you go congressman the

house speaker nancy pelosi now wants

covid relief talks based on

this 908 billion dollar proposal put out

by a bipartisan group

of senators does that proposal do you

believe stand

a real chance and if if you can't reach

a deal how do you explain

to the millions of americans out there

who are about to lose unemployment

benefits

might be kicked out of their homes might

not have enough money to put food on the

table

how do you explain to them the urgent

need to get

money and get relief to them right now

well i think it does stand a very good

chance of becoming a part of the

government funding package to keep the

government open and we have to take up

within the next two weeks

i hope and pray that we do pass a relief

package

that is based on what's set out in that

bipartisan compromise

and uh you know how do you explain if

congress doesn't well that will be

something that mitch mcconnell will have

to explain to the country

because right now he is the number one

impediment to getting to a deal

um and so you know the the democratic

leadership has

uh compromised by uh you know

essentially agreeing

to start from a blueprint that's less

than half of what we had asked for

uh mcconnell uh should be willing to do

at least double of what he

started out with and then we'd have a

deal but we'll have to see

whether uh mcconnell wants to put a lump

of coal in people's stocking this year

um the reality is wolf uh millions of

americans can't wait

millions of businesses will disappear

and not re-emerge

next year if we don't help them now yeah

these stakes uh right now are so

so enormous uh congressman as usual

thanks so much for joining us