House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) announced that his committee would be holding a hearing on the rise of authoritarianism.

Adam Schiff’s Hearing Is A Message To Trump

According to a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, the hearing will focus on:

– How modern authoritarian regimes consolidate and hold onto power;

– Those regimes’ interest in attacking liberal democracy through political influence activities and other forms of intervention;

– The role of advanced or Internet-based technologies in the authoritarian toolkit;

– The role of the U.S. Intelligence Community and partner democratic intelligence services in collecting information about and analyzing authoritarianism and authoritarian regimes’ efforts to assert regional or global influence;

– The future of U.S. military alliances and security partnerships with backsliding or “illiberal” democratic countries; and
America’s responsibility to recognize and counter the authoritarian threat as the world’s torchbearer for representative democracy and liberal ideals.

Rep. Schiff said, “The world has witnessed the steady ascendance of authoritarian leaders and illiberal governments in recent years, and the existential challenges these regimes and their underlying ideologies pose to liberal democracies demand our full attention,” said Chairman Adam Schiff. “From Putin’s Russia to Xi’s China, from Duterte’s Philippines to Erdogan’s Turkey, and even among other NATO allies, there is a global rise of autocracy and growing appeal of the authoritarian model, which ought to concern every American. It is our Committee’s duty to understand the security dimension of this troubling trend and ensure the Intelligence Community is adequately postured to assess how 21st-Century authoritarianism will affect our national security, and that of the world community, for years to come.”

The message to Trump is that if he is going to cozy up to authoritarians, he is a threat to democracy at home and abroad.

Adam Schiff is taking on Trump

Rep. Schiff is taking on Trump’s behavior, investigating his actions, and equally as important, probing Trump’s ideology, and the danger that it presents to the country. Authoritarianism isn’t just tweeting to undermine investigations. It is the systematic destruction of democratic principles and institutions. The House has been returned to being a co-equal branch of government, and House Intelligence Committee Democrats are using their power to call out and check the undemocratic impulses of Donald Trump.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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