Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Thursday that President Donald Trump's habit of defending Russia does "undermine" Congress' election interference investigation.
During an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," the BBC's Katty Kay asked Schiff, the ranking member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, if "the president's comments to Moscow in any way hamper or undermine your work on the investigation?"
Trump said last week, during a trip through Asia, that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said that Russia did not attempt to interfere with the election.
Schiff answered that Trump's comments "certainly do" undermine the investigation.
"And more importantly they undermine our ability to protect ourselves against the next Russian interference . . . If the President of the United States can't even acknowledge what his intelligence agencies are telling him or continues to cast doubt on it or claim this is all a hoax, it doesn't help the country prepare for when the Russians might very well do this again."
The congressman added that "the consensus of the intelligence agencies was that this was a campaign orchestrated from the very top, that is it came from Vladimir Putin, it was an effort to sow discord during our election and also to help Trump and to more significantly hurt [2016 Democratic nominee] Hillary Clinton."
Schiff also mentioned revelations about Russian activity on social media, saying that Russia used ads "designed to sow discord in the United States and deepen our divisions. But the ads were also designed to attack Hillary Clinton and in cases to boost Donald Trump. So we've had a lot of confirmation of the findings of the intelligence community."
He concluded that when Trump denies the intelligence community's consensus, "more than anything else he hurts himself, but he also hurts the country."