WEBVTT - Steve Schmidt explains how Joe Biden must go on the attack against Donald Trump

0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:08.840
<v Speaker 1>The beginning of the general election contest between President Biden

0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:13.480
<v Speaker 1>and Donald Trump is no time to shade the truth.

0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:20.000
<v Speaker 1>Let us be clear about something. The overwhelming majority of

0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:24.279
<v Speaker 1>the American people have said, we don't want to see

0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:31.280
<v Speaker 1>a rematch between Presidents Trump and Biden. Yet that is

0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:35.919
<v Speaker 1>the choice the American people will get. And there is

0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:41.000
<v Speaker 1>a profound difference between the two men. One of them,

0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:50.360
<v Speaker 1>President Biden, believes in the United States, American democracy, the values, ideas,

0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:55.400
<v Speaker 1>and ideals of the Great Republic, and the other one

0:00:55.520 --> 0:01:02.640
<v Speaker 1>does not. President Biden is an American and Donald Trump

0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:11.039
<v Speaker 1>espouses an anti American worldview. His is a vision of

0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:18.479
<v Speaker 1>menace steeped in a promise of retribution, which always leads

0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:29.119
<v Speaker 1>to despair, death, estrangement, and ultimately loneliness. Donald Trump holds

0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:35.160
<v Speaker 1>out a promise that is premised in a lie. Now

0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:43.080
<v Speaker 1>that lie is born from an impatience with democracy, with

0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:47.800
<v Speaker 1>the work of ordinary men and women who are elected

0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:54.520
<v Speaker 1>to the offices and often succumb to the temptation of

0:01:54.560 --> 0:02:01.400
<v Speaker 1>the power, the prestige, the influence, the money that swirls

0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:08.320
<v Speaker 1>around them. Our American system of government is profoundly corrupted

0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:15.000
<v Speaker 1>by foreign influence, by the influence of billionaires who buy

0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:19.000
<v Speaker 1>and sell politicians like little trinkets and totems on a

0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:26.200
<v Speaker 1>store shelf. The American system, though must not be torn down,

0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:33.880
<v Speaker 1>must be repaired, not replaced by a lie that posits

0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:40.600
<v Speaker 1>a man can substitute his judgment for the judgments of

0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:48.320
<v Speaker 1>the people. That the impatience that makes democracy painful to

0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:53.640
<v Speaker 1>go through in times of corruption and malaise in stagnation

0:02:54.960 --> 0:03:00.840
<v Speaker 1>is worth overthrowing for the expediency of decision making that

0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:05.760
<v Speaker 1>can come through the certitude of a strong leader who's

0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:10.799
<v Speaker 1>in it for you. Despite all of the evidence to

0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:18.280
<v Speaker 1>the contrary, Senator Mitt Romney said it perfectly. Is there

0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:23.639
<v Speaker 1>something wrong with the voter, the voter who would give

0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.800
<v Speaker 1>their support to a man who has been found guilty

0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:36.360
<v Speaker 1>of raping a woman by a jury in an American courtroom?

0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:41.559
<v Speaker 1>What does it say about the collapse of character, of decency,

0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:46.920
<v Speaker 1>of dignity around the office for so many tens of

0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:52.320
<v Speaker 1>millions of Americans? How can it possibly be explained? How

0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:57.240
<v Speaker 1>can it be defeated? There is something that is essential

0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:05.480
<v Speaker 1>to understand about a crisis and about despairing moments and

0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:09.640
<v Speaker 1>how they have been overcome. Whether it was in the

0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:15.160
<v Speaker 1>dark days of the Revolutionary War, the trying days of

0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:20.279
<v Speaker 1>the American Civil War, whether it was in the early

0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:25.760
<v Speaker 1>days of the Second World War, through the Civil Rights movement,

0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:34.440
<v Speaker 1>through all the darkest moments, there was always amongst the

0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:44.160
<v Speaker 1>best and greatest leaders, a defiance against fear. Trump and

0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:53.240
<v Speaker 1>his extremist movement are fueled by fear and by cynicism.

0:04:53.400 --> 0:05:02.560
<v Speaker 1>The extremist movement requires fear and fear, not forget more fear,

0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:13.919
<v Speaker 1>because fear inspires but one thing panic and panic prefaces

0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:22.200
<v Speaker 1>defeat and collapse and often death. The simple truth is

0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:28.600
<v Speaker 1>most people who drown don't do so because they can't swim.

0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:40.000
<v Speaker 1>They die because they panic. Fear is an elemental human

0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:47.240
<v Speaker 1>emotion and a destructive one that can be weaponized. And

0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:51.680
<v Speaker 1>in the United States, when it has been wielded as

0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:58.080
<v Speaker 1>a weapon by men like Trump, it has been subdued

0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:05.280
<v Speaker 1>by defiance, not submission, which is why Vice President Harris's

0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:11.760
<v Speaker 1>comments on the view, We're so deeply worrying, it's so

0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:16.640
<v Speaker 1>out of step with this moment and what is required

0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:17.440
<v Speaker 1>to defeat it.

0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:21.520
<v Speaker 2>Let's watch, what are you going to do to stop

0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:28.159
<v Speaker 2>the crazies? I am scared as heck, yeah, which is

0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:30.440
<v Speaker 2>why I'm traveling our country. You know, there's an old

0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.760
<v Speaker 2>saying that there are only two ways to run for office,

0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.440
<v Speaker 2>either without an opponent or scared. So on all of

0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:39.800
<v Speaker 2>those points, yes, we should all be scared.

0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:49.480
<v Speaker 1>There are signs of decay, collapse, selfishness, and a profound

0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:56.520
<v Speaker 1>indifference to everything, it seems, except the algorithms that keep

0:06:56.600 --> 0:07:01.159
<v Speaker 1>much of the American populations head down and glued to

0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:08.400
<v Speaker 1>whatever device they're holding. Democracy requires the practice of citizenship

0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:14.560
<v Speaker 1>lest it be taken away by someone who likes the power,

0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:19.520
<v Speaker 1>absent the hard work required to earn the trust and

0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:24.400
<v Speaker 1>the vote of an informed citizenry. How we got to

0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:30.200
<v Speaker 1>this moment will be the subject of much study, But

0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:34.920
<v Speaker 1>the cause of politics in this moment must be how

0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:39.800
<v Speaker 1>we get out of it, and it starts with assembling

0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:45.640
<v Speaker 1>a great American coalition of people who are bound together

0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:54.480
<v Speaker 1>through disagreement in a faith of the US Constitution as

0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.880
<v Speaker 1>the law of the land that must be preserved and

0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:03.880
<v Speaker 1>protected so that it may endure for our grandchildren's grandchildren.

0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:13.320
<v Speaker 1>Why is this generation somehow explicated from understanding the responsibilities

0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:20.360
<v Speaker 1>imparted onto them with the birthright of American citizenship to

0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:25.120
<v Speaker 1>defend the Republic against all enemies foreign and domestic, which

0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:30.200
<v Speaker 1>includes the demagogues that seek to tear it down. There's

0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:35.480
<v Speaker 1>a poem that I think speaks powerfully to the culture

0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:40.320
<v Speaker 1>of this moment. It's too bad that so many of

0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.880
<v Speaker 1>our institutions of learning in America don't teach poetry anymore,

0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:50.120
<v Speaker 1>or really literature of any type, or require reading much

0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:55.880
<v Speaker 1>at all. But these words have meaning, and in them

0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:00.199
<v Speaker 1>there should be a purpose to stave this all off

0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.720
<v Speaker 1>and push it away, and to seek out something better.

0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:10.520
<v Speaker 1>What is the remedy to all that is around us

0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:17.079
<v Speaker 1>is hope and fearlessness. Here are the words to the

0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:22.320
<v Speaker 1>Yates poem, The Second Coming, Turning and turning in the

0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:30.040
<v Speaker 1>widening gyre. The falcon cannot hear the falconer. Things fall apart,

0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:37.600
<v Speaker 1>the center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:44.679
<v Speaker 1>The blood dim tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony

0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:50.120
<v Speaker 1>of innocence is drowned. The best lack of conviction, while

0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:56.679
<v Speaker 1>the worst are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation

0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:02.560
<v Speaker 1>is at hand. Surely the and Coming is at hand.

0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:09.520
<v Speaker 1>Things do fall apart when the center cannot hold, And

0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:16.160
<v Speaker 1>the answer to fear is not bowing towards it, it

0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:22.240
<v Speaker 1>is standing fast against it. This is an American tradition

0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:28.160
<v Speaker 1>and it must be embraced by President Biden and Vice

0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:36.480
<v Speaker 1>President Harris, because they need to confront maggot extremism every

0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:42.800
<v Speaker 1>hour of every day, either directly or through their campaign.

0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:49.040
<v Speaker 1>And the truth is, the campaign is not measuring up.

0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:55.680
<v Speaker 1>Here are some words from a democratic president. They should

0:10:55.679 --> 0:11:01.280
<v Speaker 1>be heated and they should be understood because they occurred

0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:05.120
<v Speaker 1>in a moment of grave crisis for the country, at

0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:09.400
<v Speaker 1>a desperate hour, where there was real panic in the air.

0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:18.040
<v Speaker 1>What the American people heard was a commanding voice, a

0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:26.160
<v Speaker 1>voice of reassurance, of calm, with the power to communicate clearly,

0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.960
<v Speaker 1>a simple message in an urgent hour.

0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:35.840
<v Speaker 3>And here it was, this is pre eminently the time

0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:42.000
<v Speaker 3>to speak of proof, story of proof, frankly and boldly.

0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:48.400
<v Speaker 3>No need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our

0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:55.760
<v Speaker 3>country today. This great nation will endure as it has endured,

0:11:56.480 --> 0:12:01.280
<v Speaker 3>will revive, and will prosper go best at all.

0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:06.680
<v Speaker 4>Let me assert my firm belief that's the only thing

0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:14.839
<v Speaker 4>we have to fear is fear itself, nameless, unreasoning, unjustified.

0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:20.400
<v Speaker 4>Narah which paralyze is needed up but to convert retreat

0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:25.680
<v Speaker 4>into it bad in every dark hour of our national life,

0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:30.680
<v Speaker 4>Aimy the tip of frankness, and a figure has met

0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:34.400
<v Speaker 4>with that understanding and the fault of the people themselves,

0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:39.640
<v Speaker 4>which is espencio to victory, and I am convinced that

0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:44.520
<v Speaker 4>you will again give that the fort to leadership in

0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:45.920
<v Speaker 4>these critical days.

0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:50.440
<v Speaker 1>There is only one way out of America's current predicament,

0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:55.880
<v Speaker 1>and it is through the defeat of MAGA extremism at

0:12:55.880 --> 0:13:02.360
<v Speaker 1>the polls that, over time will rid the country of

0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:10.520
<v Speaker 1>its malign influence and ability to take national power, particularly

0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:16.360
<v Speaker 1>the power of the American presidency, which must be fortified

0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:24.679
<v Speaker 1>against further encroachments by a talented and brilliant manipulator and

0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:30.480
<v Speaker 1>liar and deceiver like Donald Trump, who dares to put

0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:36.560
<v Speaker 1>himself in campaign ads comparing himself to God. This is

0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:41.560
<v Speaker 1>a dangerous movement and a dangerous man, and it should

0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:47.320
<v Speaker 1>not be trifled with. Ever, it was an appalling moment

0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:53.840
<v Speaker 1>when the Democratic National Committee attacked Governor Asa Hutchinson, a

0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:59.080
<v Speaker 1>man who's dedicated his entire life to honorable public service.

0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:05.400
<v Speaker 1>Democracy does not mean agreement down the line with a

0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:13.000
<v Speaker 1>Millennial at the Democratic National Committee. Democracy needs tolerance and

0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:19.160
<v Speaker 1>respect and the ability to see patriotism manifested his courage.

0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:23.440
<v Speaker 1>John Kennedy certainly would have understood what Asa Hutchinson was doing.

0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.080
<v Speaker 1>He would have understood a profile and courage when he

0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:32.520
<v Speaker 1>saw it, just like President Biden did, who had to

0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:36.520
<v Speaker 1>take time out of his schedule to apologize for the

0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:43.840
<v Speaker 1>arrogance of the Democratic National Committee towards an honorable friend

0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:52.480
<v Speaker 1>of American democracy. The president deserves the best in the

0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:58.560
<v Speaker 1>fight ahead. The President of the United States is currently behind.

0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:03.160
<v Speaker 1>There were two good events put on by the White

0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:08.000
<v Speaker 1>House and by the campaign. One was at Mother Emmanuel

0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:10.920
<v Speaker 1>Church and one was at Valley Forge. But the question

0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:14.440
<v Speaker 1>hanging in the air is what's next? Where next? What

0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:20.200
<v Speaker 1>is the message of the reelection campaign? Because it cannot

0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:28.920
<v Speaker 1>be as afraid as heck it must not be, because

0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:35.920
<v Speaker 1>that message portends catastrophe, not just for the ambitions of

0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:41.480
<v Speaker 1>the reelection staff, but for the nation as it approaches

0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:50.040
<v Speaker 1>it's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of independence. The truth

0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:54.760
<v Speaker 1>is millions live in Iowa. It barely more than one

0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:59.480
<v Speaker 1>hundred thousand turned out, and of that one hundred thousand,

0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:06.920
<v Speaker 1>the majority, in a historic fashion, were for Trump. But

0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:09.760
<v Speaker 1>imagine if people cared enough to turn out just to

0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:14.520
<v Speaker 1>say no, even if there was only three hundred thousand

0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:21.800
<v Speaker 1>or two hundred thousand. But it didn't happen, and it

0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:25.080
<v Speaker 1>won't happen because the question that hangs in the air

0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:29.920
<v Speaker 1>in America is does anyone care at all? Soon will know,

0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.320
<v Speaker 1>but cow tewing to the fear in the air is

0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:41.280
<v Speaker 1>a certain route to despair. A year from now, as

0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:44.520
<v Speaker 1>the next president of the United States gets ready to

0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:49.800
<v Speaker 1>raise their hand and to swear the oath, the difference

0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:53.920
<v Speaker 1>in this race is the man who will run under

0:16:53.960 --> 0:17:01.200
<v Speaker 1>the banner of Abraham Lincoln's party. He raises his hand,

0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:07.000
<v Speaker 1>won't mean a word of it, and should that happen.

0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:13.439
<v Speaker 1>Four years is a long time to hold the line

0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:20.600
<v Speaker 1>against a dictator and his cause, which wants power more

0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:25.560
<v Speaker 1>than its opposition wants liberty.