WEBVTT - Appeasement and Panic Only Make Trump Stronger 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:04.480 Thirty three days until Donald Trump raises his hand and 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:10.080 in an instant is transformed from citizen to caesar, the 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:14.880 president with immunity above the law. The man who said 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.000 he will be a dictator on day one will have 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:19.840 an opportunity. 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:20.119 To be one. 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:25.959 This is the warning Donald Trump, forty seventh president of 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:31.120 the United States, and he has picked a cabinet of weirdos, 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:38.519 of criminals, of nair dwells strangeness that defies description in 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:43.279 every direction, emanating from the most powerful seat of government 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:47.239 in all of the world. The person Robert Kennedy that 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:50.360 he has picked to run the public health agencies is 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:54.880 a vaccine denier. So when we think about making America 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:59.360 great again and making America healthy again at the Christmas season, 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:02.960 what better way to start by taking a visit back 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:10.400 to the old polio award lot. 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:26.960 Joy and Bloods. We'll always find sun Sun schoolways, most 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:36.920 line and tried Sony. 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:48.920 Yes, making America great again, bringing back mumps and rebella 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:55.000 and all of the cured diseases. When Donald Trump appeared 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.800 at his news conference, wasn't it like he was trying 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:01.960 to tell the whole con that not only does he 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.760 know who Jonas salk Is, but he can spell it. 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:09.080 It was quite a moment. Thanks as a Trump. 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:12.560 What about the polio vaccine? Well, I'm a big believer 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:15.920 in it, and I think everything should be looked at. 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:19.400 But I'm a big believer in the polio vaccines vaccine. 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:21.280 Do you think schools should mandate vaccines? 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:24.600 Do you think schools should mandate vaccines? 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.440 I don't like mandates. I'm not a big mandate person. 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:34.919 At any rate. The carnival of unfitness continues rolling along unabated, 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:40.440 as Trump fills the government with the most galactically unfit 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:48.560 specimens ever forwarded by anybody into positions of responsibility. It 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:54.000 will be amazing to watch unfold on the edge of 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:59.760 catastrophe as we journey into that abyss which is surely 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:04.160 to come during these days, It's important to remember, though 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.800 it may not seem like it, the nose of Donald 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:12.880 Trump's proverbial rocket ship is already tipping down. He is 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:17.440 at his epigy. It seems like the whole world is 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:22.080 bending in his direction. He says something and people rush 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:26.600 to make it so he cannot be stopped. He points 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:32.799 his finger, and news organization after news organization prostrates itself. 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.960 There's a great example at hand about how not to 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:42.280 face Trump, about how not to roll over, about how 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:48.080 not to operate through a political lens. Let's look north 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:52.040 of the border. If there is a more ludicrous figure 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:56.040 than Justin Trudeau, it's hard to find one, and Trump 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.080 is having fun with him. He is like a cat 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:04.600 playing with a mouse. Now let's go through Justin Trudeau's 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:09.120 humiliation and the fall of the Canadian government, which is 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:12.320 upon us and will likely happen this week or into 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:16.920 early next week. Everything that has happened in Canada is 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:22.799 as a direct result of how Trudeau appeased Donald Trump. 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:29.560 Step one, there was the threat. Step two, there was panic, 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.680 Step three, there was a race to get tomorrow Alago, 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:39.960 to kiss the ring, and then well, humiliation, Just like 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:45.040 Joe Scarborough. Step one, there was the threat, step two, 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:51.440 there was the panic, Step three, there was the capitulation. 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:54.240 Over the past week, Joe and I have heard from 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.520 so many people, from political leaders to regular citizens, deeply 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:04.120 dismayed by several of President elect Trump's cabinet selections, and 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:08.039 they are scared. Last Thursday, we expressed our own concerns 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:10.840 on this broadcast and even said we would appreciate the 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:15.320 opportunity to speak with the President elect himself. On Friday, 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:20.240 we were given the opportunity to do just that. Joe 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:23.320 and I went to mar A Lago to meet personally 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:24.920 with President Elect Trump. 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.080 And that's going to come as no surprise to anybody 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:31.800 who watches this show, has watched it over the past 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:35.000 year or over the past decade, that we didn't see 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:37.680 eye to eye on a lot of issues, and we 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:38.280 told him so. 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:41.720 Joe and I realized it's time to do something different, 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.400 and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:47.640 but also talking with. 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:50.960 Him and then the humiliation. 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:52.960 All of us are going to do the best we 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.040 can do, and we're all working towards a better America. 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.520 Take it day by day, day by day by day, 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.120 and again you can and you can. You can predict 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:03.839 the future by shaping the future. 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:08.080 Or we can look at ABC News. Step one, there 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.720 is the threat. Step two, there is the promise to 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:12.520 stand firm. 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:15.160 Trump sumed me because I used the word rate, even 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:18.640 though a judge said, that's in fact what did happen, 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.840 and in fact, we filed the motion to dismiss last week. Unfortunately, 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:25.680 it now comes with the territory. But I'm not going 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:27.760 to be cowed out of doing my job because of 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:28.239 the threat. 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:34.119 About step three, Well, there is the bending of the knee, 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:38.440 the laying down. And so Donald Trump is cutting through 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:43.440 the American media like a man with a sickle swinging 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.720 it at blades of grass, cutting them down one by 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:51.560 one by one. And what this will mean in every 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:56.479 American newsroom is a chilly atmosphere, and every thirty thirty 0:06:56.560 --> 0:07:00.160 five forty year old reporter making two hundred fifty fty 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:05.080 thousand dollars a year will be told indirectly with a look, 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.239 don't be the shit for brains that costs the company 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:13.080 fifteen million dollars by not being nice to Donald Trump. 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:17.320 There is going to be a fire hose and assault 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:22.200 of information that sprays out over the American people, and 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.400 the reaction to it will have been planned. It will 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:30.320 have been predicted, and what Donald Trump and all of 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:34.760 his people will want is the panic and the outrage, 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.640 because there will be too much to focus on any 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:42.360 one action. For example, Donald Trump is going to party 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:46.360 in all of the January sixth protesters, with a few exceptions, 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:50.040 But the next thing he's going to do is potentially 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:54.000 deploy the US military, and the news environment will not 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:59.040 accommodate the outrage on all fifty things that he plans 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:03.360 to do. The question at hand is when, what day, 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:08.600 what hour, what subject will be the one where Donald 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:13.720 Trump fatally overreaches? Where will it occur or will the 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:17.360 failure be brought to him? Will an event occur not 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:21.840 precipitated by him that he fails to react to properly. 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.400 It could happen on day three, or it could happen 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.680 on day three hundred and thirty three. Who knows. The 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:32.719 Trump presidency will not be a smooth ride, though a 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.720 lot of the reporting makes it seem like Donald Trump 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:40.360 has somehow become wise omnipotent and he just points a finger, 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.480 says something and it happens. And that's not the way 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.240 it's going to work. There's a new District Attorney in 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:49.880 Los Angeles, and unlike the last one, he can speak, 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.640 and he understands the law and has, let's say, a 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:57.840 level of sophistication about its application. The point that he's 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:00.880 made when it comes to Trump's mass roundup is that 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:04.520 under California law, a lot of what Trump is planning 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:09.240 is illegal. So there's no legal authority for California law 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.439 enforcement to aid the Feds in their round up. The 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:16.960 argument that he's making is a complex one, a serious one, 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:20.280 and a lawful one. The type of argument he's making 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.280 is the type of argument that tangles up Donald Trump. 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.040 The meetings that should be taking place in Washington, DC 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.480 right now by Democrats should be focused, and they should 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:34.240 be singular, and they should be about obstructing Donald Trump's 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.599 ability to do the damage that he planned to do. 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:42.120 On January twentieth, two thousand and nine, very famously, Mitch 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:45.280 McConnell and the group of Republicans gathered together on the 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:50.480 night of Barack Obama's inauguration. Their plan their meeting was 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:53.520 to make sure he failed as president. They didn't care 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:56.679 about the country succeeding. They just wanted him to fail. 0:09:57.000 --> 0:09:59.959 Democrats shouldn't want the country to fail, and they should 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:04.559 prevented from doing so by obstructing Donald Trump at every 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:10.559 conceivable opportunity. The application of political power is going to 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.679 flow from the House of Representatives, where Republicans have maybe 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:19.840 a two seat majority. That means, because every appropriation bill, 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.480 all of the money flows out of the House, Democrats 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.599 will have the ability over the next few months to 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:33.040 do things that slow down the damage, that stop catastrophe. Now, 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.200 there are some people who say Donald Trump won the election, 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:39.199 and of course those people are correct. There are some 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:43.120 people who say, because he won the election, Democrats should 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.679 see politics to him completely and let him do as 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:50.280 much damage as he can so voters will turn against 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:53.679 him as quickly as possible, so Democrats will be in 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:57.920 the position of maximum strength for the next election. Being 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:01.800 a co conspirator to Arson is not a political strategy. 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:07.200 What the Democrats need to do is model conviction, common sense, 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:12.560 and toughness. Who will be the person and who will 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.720 be the team of people that do not step back 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.760 from Trump, that do not lay down in front of Trump, 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:22.439 that tell Donald Trump and tell his lawyers and say 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:27.080 to his threats, Hey, mister President, go fuck yourself. Because 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.240 those people need to start moving to the front of 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:35.280 the line. Because the power of the word know is 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:38.800 about to be tested. And right now all we're seeing 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:42.959 is examples of people looking to advance your self interest, 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:47.080 to get out of trouble, off the naughty list. They 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:51.680 want that permanent mark removed from their record because they're 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:56.040 scared of Hitler or Trump. The thing about fear is 0:11:56.120 --> 0:12:00.440 it's contagious, and the contagion that it spreads is an 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:05.599 ugly one. It's panic. Panic causes people to debase themselves, 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:09.440 and in that debasement, they lose dignity. And as they 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:15.320 lose dignity in the face of a genuinely awful opponent, 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:20.640 that opponent Trump takes advantage of it, and a politics 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:25.680 of dehumanization is what follows. And so watching what plays 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:28.920 out in Canada is a lesson. It is a lesson 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:33.079 about what weakness in dealing with Donald Trump brings to you. 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.920 The same thing happened in the Republican Party. It's destroyed 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:42.400 justin Trudeau's government. It's taken out two Democratic presidential candidates, 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:47.160 it's wrecked the American news media. But somewhere out there, 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:51.440 someday the line will hold. And when it does, Donald 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:55.719 Trump will start stepping backwards. And when he does, it 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.640 will be a very good day, indeed, a good day 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:03.880 for America. This is the warning. I'm Steve Schmidt. This 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.840 is the warning, and I invite you to join. Subscribe 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:11.040 on our substack, on our YouTube channel, follow us. Welcome 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:11.840 to the community.