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Former McCain Advisor Steve Schmidt: Republicans’ Senate Majority Is “Going Down with the SS Trump”

Steve Schmidt believes Republicans will lose control of the Senate if they continue to be Donald Trump’s “foot soldiers.” The former GOP strategist offered a grim assessment for the party.

Schmidt was a senior advisor to Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. He’s become a strong critic of President Trump and told MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle that Republicans are in trouble.

“What we saw here over the last couple of days is these retired four-star officers speaking out and engaging in politics which they are loathed to do,” Schmidt said.

“But they’re not saying we don’t like Donald Trump’s tax plan or we don’t like Donald Trump’s approach to health care.”

“What these men who have spent their entire careers, their entire lifetimes in service to the nation as sentinels of the nation’s liberty and freedom, what they’ve said is Donald Trump is a unique threat to Americanism.”

Ruhle pointed to GOP Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney. Both have publicly stepped way from Trump in the past few days.

“Romney and Murkowski are going to come out looking fine when history’s lens judges this rancid era,” Schmidt said.

“When you look at the Senate races right now, Cory Gardner in Colorado, that race is effectively over. The Democrat will win,” he said.

“When you look at Martha McSally in Arizona, that race is effectively over. The Democrat will win.”

“When you look at the Senate races all over the country, you see Republican candidates in very, very big trouble and Mitch McConnell’s grasp on the senate majority becoming tenuous.”

Schmidt had a simple explanation for why Republicans are at risk of losing the Senate.

“They signed up to become foot soldiers in a cult of personality for Donald Trump,” he said.

“They’re going down with the SS Trump if that’s what happens in November. And as we look out on that ship on the high seas, the SS Trump proverbial is foundering.”

“It’s had a difficult month with these protests, with the total ineptitude and response to Coronavirus, and the American people are looking at this man, this man who has not met history’s task in a way that is greater than any previous American leader in all of our long history.”

Follow Darragh Roche on Twitter

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Former Republican Strategist Steve Schmidt: “This Would Not Have Happened” If Obama Were President

Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt criticized President Donald Trump’s coronavirus response, saying that the United States would not have the highest death toll from the virus in the world if former President Barack Obama were still in office.

“If Barack Obama was the president of the United States, this would not have happened,” Schmidt told MSNBC’s Ari Melber. “We would have had competent professional people. We would have done what we needed to do early.”

Schmidt pointed out that the federal response under Obama would have mirrored “what happened during the Ebola crisis.” (At the time, Obama deployed United States personnel to West Africa to fight the Ebola outbreak, leading a worldwide response that brought cases down “80 percent from peak levels.”)

“We would have had someone like Ron Klain in charge of it, not the confederacy of dunces that we see running around the West Wing,” he continued, adding that “no amount of gaslighting, delusion, fantasy happy talk” from President Trump would alter the reality that it will take years for the United States to recover from the financial devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

You can watch the exchange below.

.@SteveSchmidtSES: "If Barack Obama was the president of the United States, this would not have happened. We would have had competent professional people … not the confederacy of dunces that we see running around the West Wing." pic.twitter.com/9kGosC8NmT read more

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Former McCain Advisor: Trump Is “The Worst President in American History”

Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt pulled no punches in a grim assessment of the President’s Coronavirus response on Thursday. Steve Schmidt said Donald Trump was the worst president in the country’s history.

Schmidt served as an advisor to Senator John McCain during his 2008 presidential bid. He’s now part of the conservative Lincoln Project and spoke to MSNBC about their new ad “Mourning in America.”

“What the ad points out is that the President, who ran saying, ‘I alone can fix it,’ and, ‘I’ll make America great again,’ has presided over an era unlike any other in American history,” Schmidt explained.

“He’s brought tragedy to the country. This is a moment of profound American weakness.”

“He has handled this with a level of ineptitude and incompetence that is simply staggering,” Schmidt went on.

“The cost is immense human suffering in the country. We have 70,000 dead Americans, that number will cruise through 100,000. We have a shattered economy. We’ll see unemployment rates of 30 percent.”

“None of this had to happen,” the ex-Republican said.

“He was not on his game, he left the country unprotected. He’s been lying to the country, he has been talking about his television ratings. His eye is not on the ball.”

“The reality is, we have the worst president in American history at the moment of one of the greatest crises in the country’s history.”

Schmidt accused the President of lacking empathy and leadership.

“All over this country, there is death that did not have to be,” Schmidt said.

“He told the American people that he had been assured by the Chinese, no problem — 15 Americans have this, soon it will be gone. This is a disaster for the ages.”

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Majority of Americans Think Trump Encourages White Supremacists

Presidents are supposed to unify our country and bring Americans together for a common purpose. But the majority of people believe we currently have a president who fosters division and promotes white supremacy, according to a new poll.

The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) poll published Monday found that 54 percent of respondents think Trump’s decisions and behavior as president have encouraged members of white supremacist groups.

This is compared to 39 percent who say Trump’s behavior has had no effect and five percent who say he has discouraged these groups.

More than two-thirds of black Americans (72 percent) and Hispanic Americans (68 percent) say Trump’s decisions and behavior have encouraged white supremacist groups. White Americans, however, are less likely (45 percent) to hold this view.

Whites with a college degree are much more likely than whites without a degree to say Trump’s decisions and behavior have encouraged white supremacist groups (58 percent vs. 38 percent).   

The poll also found that a large majority of Americans do not approve of the president. According to the poll:

Across a wide array of measures, a majority of Americans disapprove of the president and his conduct in office. read more

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Fox News Admits That Many Conservatives Are Now Supporting Democrats

According to Fox News, the list of conservative Republicans who now say they will be voting for Democrats in this year’s midterm elections is getting longer, but they are clueless as to why this is happening.

In an article called “Divorcing Trump: Why some conservatives are now pushing Democrats (!)“ Howard Kurtz explores this puzzling phenomenon in depth as he attempts to come up with explanations.

Well, it’s actually not puzzling to most Americans, but it is certainly something that is not understood by the viewers of Fox News.

Kurtz does a good job of listing the very prominent (former) conservative Republicans who have become so disgusted by Donald Trump and his cult-like followers that they have now proclaimed their support of Democratic candidates.

The list includes:

  1. Max Boot,
  2. George Will,
  3. Jennifer Rubin,
  4. Steve Schmidt,
  5. Nicole Wallace, and
  6. Joe Scarborough.

All of these people are not only very prominent but also very visible in the media, denouncing Trump and his policies.

What’s interesting about the Fox News analysis is that it completely misses the point as to why these people are now rooting for Democrats to win. They understand something that Fox hopes people won’t recognize: that Donald Trump and his followers are

a threat to democracy read more

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Steve Schmidt Announces He Is Leaving The Republican Party

Longtime Republican political operative Steve Schmidt renounced his membership in the Republican Party in an overnight tweetstorm. He said he was leaving “the party of Trump” after nearly 30 years as a registered voter.

He explained that he can no longer stand the continuing abuses of President Donald Trump and he believes “the GOP has become a danger to our democracy.”

He also called the Republican Party “corrupt, indecent and immoral,” and he said with few exceptions Republican elected officials were “feckless cowards who disgrace and dishonor the legacies of the party’s greatest leaders.”

As John McCain’s campaign manager in the 2008 run for president Schmidt had convinced McCain to select Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

In announcing his decision Schmidt wrote he was joining the Democratic Party and he was hoping the 2018 elections would elect “Democratic majorities:”

“This Independent voter will be aligned with the only party left in America that stands for what is right and decent and remains fidelitous to our Republic, objective truth, the rule of law and our Allies. That party is the Democratic Party.”

“The first step to a season of renewal in our land is the absolute and utter repudiation of Trump and his vile enablers in the 2018 election by electing Democratic majorities.”

29 years and nine months ago I registered to vote and became a member of The Republican Party which was founded in 1854 to oppose slavery and stand for the dignity of human life. Today I renounce my membership in the Republican Party. It is fully the party of Trump. read more