Former President Donald Trump called Democrats and others who have opposed or investigated him “the enemy from within” in an interview that aired Sunday, describing them as more dangerous than major foreign adversaries of the United States, including Russia and China.

Trump has specifically singled out those he has called “crazies we have in, like Adam Schiff,” referring to the California representative and Democratic Senate candidate who was the lead prosecutor in the then-president’s first impeachment trial in the Senate .

During a pre-recorded interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Trump was asked by host Maria Bartiromo how he would deal with bureaucrats who could undermine him in a possible second term.

“I always say, we have two enemies,” Trump said, adding, “We have the enemy from without, and then we have the enemy from within, and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and Russia. all these countries.”

Trump added that a “smart president” can handle outside adversaries “pretty easily,” but “what’s harder to handle are the crazies we have on the inside, like Adam Schiff.”

“I call him the enemy from within,” he added.

As the 2024 presidential race enters its final weeks, the Republican candidate has increasingly labeled his opponents, including Vice President Kamala Harris, as criminals, and criticized criticism of him or his policies as illegal — a rhetorical focus of his in previous races as Good.

Trump’s comments on Sunday echoed comments he made Saturday evening at a rally in Coachella, California, where he called Schiff “the shifty Schiff” and “the enemy from within.”

“He invented the Russian hoax. … He is a sick person,” Trump said.

In response to a request for comment from NBC News on Sunday, Schiff’s campaign pointed to a series of tweets the Democratic congressman posted Saturday evening in response to Trump’s rally comments.

“Another nonsensical rant about me, filled with tired insults, lies about voting booths and more, this time in my home state of California. Seriously, Donald. Why are you so obsessed with me? Schiff wrote.

The former president has long had a hostile relationship with Schiff, dating back to the congressman’s work as one of the impeachment managers in Trump’s first impeachment in 2019. In posts on Truth Social, Trump has often called the congressman “devious” and alleged that he improperly investigated Trump’s ties to Russia during the impeachment inquiry.

House Republicans have joined Trump in angering Schiff, who is leading the California Senate race against former baseball player Steve Garvey, a Republican.

In 2023, House Republicans censured Schiff in the House of Representatives, alleging he misrepresented special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s 2016 contacts with Russia. Mueller’s report shows that there were no explicitly coordinated efforts between Trump’s campaign and Russia to influence the election.

“You look at the danger he’s put our country in, possibly with Russia, with the false, fabricated deal he made with Hillary and some bad people… that started as an excuse for why she lost an election that a lot of people felt was she should have won,” Trump added on Sunday.

When asked about the upcoming election, Trump sought to allay fears — as President Joe Biden expressed earlier this month — that chaos could ensue again like 2020.

“No, I don’t think so, not from the side that votes for Trump,” the former president said, adding that any problems surrounding the election would not be due to outside agitators or foreign nations.

“I think the bigger problem is the enemy within… We have some very bad people, we have some sick people, radical left-wing lunatics,” he said.

Any unrest, Trump said, “should be handled very easily by, if necessary, the National Guard, or, if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

The National Guard is understood to have been delayed for hours in responding to the attack on the Capitol on January 6, in part because Trump had not requested that they be deployed on the day of the riot.