House Select Intelligence Ranking Member Adam Schiff said Vice President Mike Pence’s justification for President Donald Trump firing former FBI director James Comey was “the most difficult to swallow.”

“[He] suggested that this was done with the interest of the safety of the American people in mind,” the California Democrat said on comedian Chelsea Handler’s Netflix show, which airs Friday.

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Schiff added, “You point to one person in this country that believes that’s the reason Comey lost his job. That person evidently is the vice president but he’s a universe of one on that subject.”

To open the segment, Handler asked about the legality of Trump firing Comey while he was investigating him.

“I was struck by [‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ actor] Chris Pratt’s interview and his advice he should have given the president: don’t. That probably is the best advice to give this president, period,” Schiff said, citing a statement by Pratt on Handler’s show.

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Schiff said that the way Comey handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails in the couple weeks leading up to the election “was the exercise of very poor judgment.”

He added, “I don’t think anyone in the country believes the president when the president claims that this is about the Clinton investigation,” the congressman said. “It just doesn’t pass the smell test.”

Handler read an excerpt of the letter Trump sent to Comey firing him.

“Whats wrong with him?” Handler asked.

“How much time do you have?” Schiff replied.

Schiff said that Trump has “no appreciation for a system of checks and balance.”

“He has no respect for an independent judiciary,” Schiff said. “He doesn’t even understand the role of the judges in our constitutional scheme of things. I think this is at the heart of his behavior.”