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Dem. lawmaker: Russians promoted Second Amendment on social media so Americans would kill each other
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said that Russian intelligence pushed content that had "multiple aims" and was "designed to pit us against each other, to exploit our divisions." (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Dem. lawmaker: Russians promoted Second Amendment on social media so Americans would kill each other

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said last week that Russia used social media to promote the Second Amendment during the 2016 election with the hope that Americans would kill each other.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has been touting his message during interviews with MSNBC and ABC News' "This Week" and during a speech at the University of Pennsylvania over the past week.

Schiff said Russian intelligence pushed content that had "multiple aims" and was "designed to pit us against each other, to exploit our divisions." Schiff's comments are primarily a response to the recently released Republican FISA memo, which he has called inaccurate.

What did Schiff say about the Russian content?

He said the Russians used the Black Lives Matter movement to widen the racial divide in the U.S.

"Fascinatingly, they also trumpeted the Second Amendment," Schiff said. "Apparently, the Russians are very big fans of our Second Amendment. They don’t particularly want a Second Amendment of their own, but they’re really glad that we have one. The Russians would be thrilled if we were doing nothing but killing each other every day, and sadly, we are.

What else did he say?

Schiff said he believes President Donald Trump and the GOP damaged the relationship between the Democrats and the intelligence community by releasing the FISA memo.

Republicans are "impeaching the FBI," he told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" Sunday.

"The real damage they have done is they have damaged the relationship between our committee and the intelligence committee," Schiff said. "In the future, the Intelligence Committee is going to be very wary about sharing any information with us because they won't trust us to be responsible stewards of it and sources of information are going to dry up. "

He said people would also be afraid to report suspicious activities because they won't trust that their names will be kept confidential.

"If you have a neighbor next door who is buying a lot of fertilizer and it seems odd to you because they don't have a yard," Schiff said. "Are you going to think twice before calling the FBI? Because if they get a search warrant for your neighbor and something is politicized, and the political winds change your identity is going to be revealed."

Sources will dry up, he added.

"There's a reason why this process has never been used before," Schiff went on. "But, even so, the process presumed that the president of the United States who has a veto over this would be a responsible person who would have the interest of the nation at heart."

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