Democratic Rep. calls Trump a 'propaganda piece for the Kremlin

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff  (Calif.) has long been a vocal critic of Donald Trump's connections and sympathies to Putin, but he is ramping up his rhetoric against the president-elect, calling him a "propaganda piece for the Kremlin."

Schiff went on MSNBC Wednesday to toss his accusation at Trump and then posted the video of the interview on his Twitter account:

His comment was in response to Trump's recent rejection of the notion that the Russians interfered with U.S. elections, denying the assessment of many U.S. intelligence agencies saying otherwise.

Here's what Schiff said:

[S]adly, Donald Trump has gotten an intelligence briefing so he knows better and this is deeply concerning.

It's one thing when he doesn't get regular briefings — and he hasn't been — but its another when he actually does get briefed and he ignores what the intelligence community's best assessments are. There's really overwhelming evidence of the Russian involvement in these hacks and by denying it, continuing to deny it, he has essentially become really a propaganda piece for the Kremlin.

They would love to sow doubt about their involvement in our campaign, and the president-elect is giving them the most phenomenal cover. But I find this so deeply disturbing because, if during the campaign and now after the campaign, he is still willing to disregard the plain intelligence, it means that when it doesn't suit him he will ignore it. He will decide to choose his own facts and you simply cannot have that in a commander in chief.

There's gonna come a time in this country when we have a national security crisis, the American people are going to need to believe him, and this makes it very difficult.

And it's not just Democrats who are angered by the possibility of Putin interfering in our election. Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina is so upset by the alleged foreign interference that he warned: "I'm going after Russia in every way you can go after Russia. I want Putin personally to pay a price."

Will Trump stonewall efforts by Congress to investigate the matter for the sake of his friendly relations with the Russian president?