Schiff: If Trump Is Left Unchecked, He Could Sell Alaska To Russia

KEY POINTS

Rep. Schiff expressed concern about Trump's future behavior
Schiff suggested that Trump could use Alaska to bargain with Russia
Schiff is worried that acquitting Trump will set a dangerous precedent

If President Donald Trump is left unchecked, he could go so far as to offer Alaska for sale to Russia, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on Monday.

During his closing statements for the Senate impeachment trial, Schiff said that if Trump is acquitted, it will open the door for him to do as he see fits, even if it means selling off a state to a foreign country.

“Trump could offer Alaska to the Russians in exchange for support in the next election … Because those things are not necessarily criminal, this argument would allow that he could not be impeached for such abuses of power. Of course, this would be absurd. More than absurd, it would be dangerous,” Schiff said.

Schiff also suggested that if Trump is not convicted, he could “decide to move to Mar-a-Lago permanently and let Jared Kushner run the country, delegating to him the decision whether to go to war.”

Alaska was originally purchased from Russia in 1867 for roughly two cents an acre – nearly $120 million in total in modern dollars – and officially became a state in 1959.

While the sale of Alaska is something of a far-fetched scenario, Schiff argued that not holding Trump accountable right now would set a dangerous precedent.

Democrats, in general, are worried about how Trump will handle the aftermath of the impeachment trial. For many, Schiff’s concerns are very real – they believe that now that Trump has survived impeachment, he will be even more brazen in his actions, knowing full well that Democrats have already cashed out their political capital by trying to remove him from office.

Even so, some Democrats have already begun floating the idea of seeking to impeach Trump again, if he succeeds in being re-elected. That, however, would likely require Democrats to not only hold on to their majority in the House, but to flip several seats in the Senate. As it stands now, the Republican-dominated Senate has no interest in removing Trump from the White House – Democrats would need to claim their own majority.