Speaker 1: It is December the ninth. Forty two days remain until
Speaker 1: the noon hour, when Donald Trump will once again hold
Speaker 1: within his hands the power of armageddon. He will again
Speaker 1: be the commander in chief, the American head of state,
Speaker 1: the forty seventh President of the United States, and he
Speaker 1: will be the most powerful president in American history, the
Speaker 1: first to have immunity, the first to be a king
Speaker 1: by another name. And Donald Trump has already started abusing
Speaker 1: his power by nominating, disrespectfully, some of the most unfit
Speaker 1: people who have ever been forwarded to the United States
Speaker 1: Senate for consideration for their advice and consent for deadly jobs,
Speaker 1: life and death positions, the ones that speak to the
Speaker 1: safety of the nation. This is the warning. Two days
Speaker 1: ago we celebrated an anniversary in this country Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 1: There are sixteen survivors left, sixteen who are alive at
Speaker 1: Pearl Harbor on that day when there was a massive
Speaker 1: intelligence failure. We remember September eleventh, two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: another massive intelligence failure, and we must recall when we
Speaker 1: ponder the fall of Assad in Syria and the devastating
Speaker 1: impact this will have on Russian and Iranian ambitions in
Speaker 1: the region. The question must be asked, why was Tulsea
Speaker 1: Gabbard in Syria with Basher Ali Sad? Why was Donald
Speaker 1: Trump's Director of National Intelligence nominee so easily duped like
Speaker 1: Vanity Fair magazine was in twenty twelve by the Assad
Speaker 1: regime propaganda machine. Soon there will be an opportunity, no doubt,
Speaker 1: to review the files and the archives that are uncovered
Speaker 1: that might explain what it is that Tulsi Gabbard was
Speaker 1: doing in Syria, and what it is that the Syrians
Speaker 1: thought about Tulsi Gabbard, maybe even what the Russians thought
Speaker 1: about their useful idiot. Do you know that every night
Speaker 1: on Russian state television Tulsi Gabbard is celebrated as our girl.
Speaker 1: Honest to God, it's not because she's a paid agent.
Speaker 1: She's likely not smart enough. It's because she's such a
Speaker 1: stupefyingly effective, useful idiot. She went from uttering inanities and
Speaker 1: banalities on Fox to being the nominee for the office
Speaker 1: of Director of National Intelligence. You see, the Iranians and
Speaker 1: the Russians, whose empire of malice is falling apart, have
Speaker 1: one ace up their sleeves. Donald Trump, the one man
Speaker 1: who can deliver to them victory from the edge of defeat.
Speaker 1: Because of his ignorance about the world, how it functions,
Speaker 1: and his incompetence, these will be deadly years around the world.
Speaker 1: Have no doubt about that. And the man that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump has put forward to lead the Pentagon to be
Speaker 1: the person who sits atop a command authority that includes
Speaker 1: five thousand plus nuclear weapons, A drunk and accused rapist,
Speaker 1: a man whose nomination has come now to rely on
Speaker 1: his mother, who is calling senators, making visits with him,
Speaker 1: and doing appearances on television saying he is not, in
Speaker 1: fact the low rent abuser of women that his own
Speaker 1: mother condemned him as which he is. How can we
Speaker 1: ask our young men and women to raise their hand
Speaker 1: and to serve and have such carelessness, such disrespect for
Speaker 1: their service, that the United State Senate would dare to
Speaker 1: nominate and approve this man to sit atop a civilian
Speaker 1: command structure beneath only the President of the United States.
Speaker 1: The evidence of his drunkenness, of his debauched behavior is significant.
Speaker 1: In fact, he seems to be the Republican version of
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden, a man without morals, a man without judgment
Speaker 1: and a man with a huge substance abuse problem only
Speaker 1: possibly exceeded by his entitlement. Would Republicans vote to make
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden the Secretary of Defense, then why would they
Speaker 1: make Pete Hegseth the Secretary of Defense. Tolsey Gabbert like
Speaker 1: Cash Pttel, like Pete Hegseth, like Robert Kennedy, like Christy
Speaker 1: Nome is unfit, unfit for service. But most of these
Speaker 1: people will make it through. A couple of them must not.
Speaker 1: And high on that list is the FBI director Designant Cashpitel.
Speaker 1: Cash Ptel is a joke. Let's watch the future FBI
Speaker 1: director of Trump's fantasies sell some product.
Speaker 2: We are a bestseller in the Wall Street Journal, Amazon,
Speaker 2: all these other bestseller lists, and we sold that. We
Speaker 2: met the metrics to be a New York Times bestseller.
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, the Times decides
Speaker 2: if you get on that list, even if you meet
Speaker 2: the metrics for sales. And so you know, maybe I'm
Speaker 2: kind of glad I'm not a New York Times bestseller
Speaker 2: because they won't give it to me.
Speaker 1: Planes fly into buildings when these people fail in their jobs.
Speaker 1: Serial killers get away. When this agency fails in its job,
Speaker 1: and this clown and grifter and huckster is unfit, as
Speaker 1: unfit as Mac Gates, as unfitted as Pete hake Seth,
Speaker 1: as unfit as Taulsey Gabbard. Yet so many in the
Speaker 1: media are covering Donald Trump like, well, he's a normal fella.
Speaker 1: Let's watch this instant from Meet the Press where Donald
Speaker 1: Trump makes clear that the Congress, a committee of a
Speaker 1: co equal branch of government doing oversight, impaneled to investigate
Speaker 1: his coup, his violent insurrection, that it is those people
Speaker 1: who tried to find the truth and published an eight
Speaker 1: hundred page report about what he did.
Speaker 3: And Cheney was behind it, and so is Benny Thompson
Speaker 3: and everybody on that committee. We're going to for what
Speaker 3: they did, yeh. Honestly, they should go to jail.
Speaker 1: So you think Liz Cheney should go to jail for
Speaker 1: what everyone on the committee.
Speaker 3: Used, I think everybody anybody that voted in.
Speaker 1: Funy, those people should be locked up. While the people
Speaker 1: who stormed the capitol, the criminals who vandalized it, who
Speaker 1: assaulted police officers, including the violent ones, will all be
Speaker 1: pardoned on day one. And these people will come out
Speaker 1: of prison and they will be maga martyrs. Many will
Speaker 1: run for office, Some will be elected to office, but
Speaker 1: their extremism will have paid off for them. Many of
Speaker 1: them will wind up with government appointments, no doubt, heroes forevermore.
Speaker 1: The men and women who have been called upon by
Speaker 1: their leader did something no group of Americans have ever done.
Speaker 1: They stormed the capital after a presidential election and tried
Speaker 1: to burn the Constitution to keep their orange tinted demigod
Speaker 1: from reality television in power for a job he failed
Speaker 1: at morally, mentally, and spiritually. The worst president in American
Speaker 1: history was the forty fifth president, but the forty seventh
Speaker 1: is going to pass him early in his term. When
Speaker 1: we think about retribution and revenge and all that is coming,
Speaker 1: the American media is falling down, failing in the moment,
Speaker 1: none more spectacularly than Joe Scarborough and Mika Brazinski. The
Speaker 1: exact and precise moment the country needs truthtellers looking into cameras.
Speaker 1: What they're getting is capitulation. What they're getting is the
Speaker 1: bending of the knee. What they're getting is appeasement. And
Speaker 1: there is no place where this is playing out more perversely,
Speaker 1: more dramatically than at the six o'clock hour on MSNBC
Speaker 1: when Joe Scarborough and Mika Brazinski sit down. The justifications
Speaker 1: have not stopped for weeks, and Joe Scarborough completely lost
Speaker 1: it on his audience on Friday morning, rebuking them, reprimanding them,
Speaker 1: the people he called family just days before.
Speaker 3: Do you know why I went to leaders in the
Speaker 3: Middle East who were angry at the United States and
Speaker 3: I sat there and I listened to them attacking me
Speaker 3: personally for forty five minutes because of US policy. You
Speaker 3: know why I do that? To get the read of
Speaker 3: the leader, to get the read of where the country's going.
Speaker 3: So I can come back here and talk to you
Speaker 3: and let you know what the hell is going on
Speaker 3: with context and give you context, insight and background. You know,
Speaker 3: everybody we have on the show that's a reporter, it's
Speaker 3: what they do every day. They speak on background.
Speaker 1: Let me suggest, if you're watching the show, you're not
Speaker 1: part of Joe and Mika's family. You're strangers. Actually, you're
Speaker 1: just someone trying to get some facts in the morning.
Speaker 1: And if you do feel a connection, well you should
Speaker 1: appreciate about that connection because there's no room for you
Speaker 1: in the Joe and Mika bus, the escape bus from
Speaker 1: mar A Lago. And I'm not joking around here. What
Speaker 1: we've seen from them is a form of cowardice, a
Speaker 1: form of panic. Nothing's happened yet, but they're flailing in
Speaker 1: the water already. Why are these people terrified about Donald
Speaker 1: Trump and his bluster? They are protected by the First
Speaker 1: Amendment to the Constitution. Donald Trump wants people afraid, he
Speaker 1: wants people intimidated. There is no basis for his threats
Speaker 1: to jail his opponents. His power is immense, but because
Speaker 1: this is America, it can be opposed unless people are
Speaker 1: too intimidated to oppose it. And the problem with this
Speaker 1: moment is the people who are intimidated are the richest
Speaker 1: and most powerful, with the biggest microphones and the largest platforms.
Speaker 1: They're afraid of losing what they have, and because of that,
Speaker 1: they'll tell you not what you need to hear, but
Speaker 1: what the person who can take from them wants you
Speaker 1: to hear. When you look around in the years to come,
Speaker 1: there's but a single question that you have to have
Speaker 1: the wisdom to process who is on your side. And no,
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily a person who has the magic letter
Speaker 1: E next to their name. Maybe they're also in it
Speaker 1: for themselves, maybe they're looking to get as much as
Speaker 1: they can get. And what you're going to have to
Speaker 1: figure out in the years ahead as the Trump presidency
Speaker 1: unfolds and the catastrophe reveals itself, is who out there
Speaker 1: will step up and run for office genuinely cares about
Speaker 1: reform and renewal and not about victory for themselves in
Speaker 1: the moment, but victory for the country a generation from now.
Speaker 1: Who's the person who wants to fight on your side
Speaker 1: against the most powerful interest in the world to preserve
Speaker 1: the best idea in the history of the world, America.
Speaker 1: We have crossed the line. Elon Musk is functioning as
Speaker 1: a type of unelected deputy president, the richest man in
Speaker 1: the world, the first American oligarch, powerful in business, powerful
Speaker 1: in culture, and powerful politically beyond any measure, beyond comprehension.
Speaker 1: We'll see how it plays out. Donald Trump's cabinet is
Speaker 1: the richest and the wealthiest and the most out of
Speaker 1: touch in all of American history. Each of them, with
Speaker 1: a billion dollars worth of zeros next to their name,
Speaker 1: believes because of that they are a genius, and together
Speaker 1: they are a supernova of genius, trumpy and genius that
Speaker 1: will make America great again by taking as much as
Speaker 1: they can get their hands on and sprinkling it out
Speaker 1: as they see fit. Their beneficence, you see, is a
Speaker 1: part of their genius. All the rest of us are
Speaker 1: but cogs and pieces in the grand and great contraption
Speaker 1: and machine they're rigging for them. This will all fall apart,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be very very ugly. Tremendous damage
Speaker 1: will be done to our institution, to our society. We're
Speaker 1: going to see cracks in the foundation. And even though
Speaker 1: so much of what we have seen over the last
Speaker 1: decade has been troubling, has been disturbing, has been shattering
Speaker 1: of a lot of preconceptions, none of it has yet
Speaker 1: really begun. The thing to remember is that Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: while being a terrible president, was a consequential one. But
Speaker 1: his consequential era is just getting started. Let's say the
Speaker 1: book of Donald Trump will one day be one thousand
Speaker 1: pages long. The apprentice chapters in his first term will
Speaker 1: be less than one hundred. The future and what Trump
Speaker 1: will be remembered for hasn't happened yet, but when it does,
Speaker 1: we will all remember it, and everyone around the world
Speaker 1: will also for a very very long time. Donald Trump
Speaker 1: has power, and so does MAGA. The Democratic Party has
Speaker 1: suffered a failure that it will take a long time,
Speaker 1: judging by the responses from the people who led that
Speaker 1: failure to get their heads around it, the flawless campaign
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four, According to Kamala Harris's chief of staff, well,
Speaker 1: that flawless campaign has given us our first flawless president,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, our first king since George the Third, our
Speaker 1: first commander in chief resolutely above the rest of us
Speaker 1: because he is above the law. Let's be clear about that.
Speaker 1: The fiction that we're all equal under it, that's over
Speaker 1: in America. It's not true, but it could be true
Speaker 1: if we elect the right people in. Those people in
Speaker 1: the next years are going to have to be smart
Speaker 1: and nimble and serious in. Those people are going to
Speaker 1: have to be tough in principled in. Those people are
Speaker 1: going to have to refuse to back down. And the
Speaker 1: truth is those people are going to have to take
Speaker 1: some risks. Before this is all over. These early days
Speaker 1: of the second Trump presidency will not be remembered. They
Speaker 1: will all fade out. Pete Hegseth will not make it
Speaker 1: to the Pentagon, and he won't be remembered. What will
Speaker 1: is what happens when Donald Trump's team takes command, and
Speaker 1: then over four years time, a great drama will unfold.
Speaker 1: Some people think that in the end good things will happen.
Speaker 1: I pray that those people are right, but I know
Speaker 1: in my heart that they are not, because life does
Speaker 1: not work that way. Life is hard, and it's tough,
Speaker 1: and there are consequences for people and for nations. There
Speaker 1: is a prayer carved into the marble above the fireplace
Speaker 1: in the State Dining Room. It was an admonition from
Speaker 1: John Adams, and it was a prayer that none but
Speaker 1: good and wise men would ever live under the roof
Speaker 1: of the White House. We've never had a perfect president,
Speaker 1: had some brilliant ones, we've had some corrupt ones, but
Speaker 1: we've never had a president who the Supreme Court has
Speaker 1: made a caesar who carries in his heart a malice
Speaker 1: for everybody who opposes him, and a disrespect for the
Speaker 1: institutions that constrain him, and a rage against the idea
Speaker 1: that he can be told no, the days ahead are
Speaker 1: going to be very hard in this country, and the
Speaker 1: resistance to it is going to have to be something
Speaker 1: that forms outside of Washington, because Washington is not a
Speaker 1: place where you will find opposition to Trump. It is
Speaker 1: a place where the accommodation begins. Just like on the
Speaker 1: set of Mourning Joe. This is the warning. I'm Steve Schmidt.
Speaker 1: This is the warning, and I invite you to join.
Speaker 1: Subscribe on our sub stack, on our YouTube channel, follow us.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the community.