‘The bigger the sycophant, the higher you rise’: Adam Schiff knocks Trump’s picks

Newly sworn-in Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., criticized president-elect Donald Trump's selections to fill out his administration and said he doesn't think President Joe Biden should issue preemptive pardons as he leaves office.

"The precedent of giving blanket pardons, preemptive blanket pardons on the way out of an administration, I think, is a precedent we don't want to set," Schiff told anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview Sunday on "This Week."

Schiff also responded to Trump's promise to pardon some Jan. 6 offenders.

"The American people, I think, voted for him in part because they wanted something done about crime," he said. "Not because they wanted to see him pardon criminals attacking the government."

FBI Director Christopher Wray announced last week that he'll resign at the end of Biden's term after Trump announced he had selected hardliner Kash Patel for the position.

Asked if Trump's threats to go after his political enemies worry him, Schiff pointed to Patel's nomination as reason for concern.

"I think if Patel is the director of the FBI, then all bets are off," he said.

Schiff said Patel demonstrated a theme he saw during Trump's first term.

"And that is, you rise to the level of your sycophancy," he said. "The bigger the sycophant, the higher you rise."

ABC News has reported that Biden is considering issuing preemptive pardons to individuals who Trump has vowed to go after, including members of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, of which Schiff was a member. In an interview last Sunday on NBC, Trump said committee members "should go to jail."

Schiff, who was a manager in Trump's first impeachment, has said he would not accept a preemptive pardon, pointing to the "vital, quintessential oversight" of the Jan. 6 committee and the impact of such a sweeping decision.

The senator also said that Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence, isn't qualified for that role and questioned her previous relations with ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

"Someone that had shown that kind of poor judgment is not necessarily someone you want advising this president," Schiff said.

Schiff was also asked about his communications with fellow California lawmaker Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi after she underwent hip replacement surgery following a fall in Luxembourg.

Schiff said he's been in contact with Pelosi's daughter and that she is "recovering well."

"As strong and as tough as she is, I know she'll be back on her feet soon," he said.