WEBVTT - Steve Schmidt explains why Kevin McCarthy deserved to be being ousted as Speaker + Why John Kelly must join the fight vs. Trump

0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:07.880
<v Speaker 1>After losing the nineteen sixty two California gubernatorial election, Richard

0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:12.720
<v Speaker 1>Nixon held a news conference. It became known as the

0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:18.480
<v Speaker 1>Last News Conference is set in motion, a tradition that henceforth,

0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:24.200
<v Speaker 1>when people are retiring from politics under duress and stress,

0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:30.720
<v Speaker 1>their true character and personality shows up and shines through.

0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:37.320
<v Speaker 1>And yesterday it was the case for Kevin McCarthy, defenestrated

0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:42.320
<v Speaker 1>and humiliated after two hundred and sixty nine days of

0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:47.040
<v Speaker 1>craziness as the speaker in name only of the House

0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:53.160
<v Speaker 1>of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy unveiled himself the way that political

0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:58.360
<v Speaker 1>narcissists do. There's always a tell, and it's the use

0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:05.800
<v Speaker 1>of the word I, I I I Now. Kevin McCarthy's

0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:11.120
<v Speaker 1>last news conference held more grie events and more ludicrous

0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:15.240
<v Speaker 1>moments than can be counted in this short response, but

0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.840
<v Speaker 1>we'll do a few at least do our best to

0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.600
<v Speaker 1>try to capture the essence of it. Let's start with

0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:27.800
<v Speaker 1>Kevin McCarthy speaking to yes America's children.

0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.039
<v Speaker 2>To any child that are listening and who are coming

0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:33.479
<v Speaker 2>to visit the Capitol, this is the place I want

0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:37.399
<v Speaker 2>you to visit. I liked opening the capital back up again.

0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.600
<v Speaker 2>I like taking away the metal detectives. I liked committees

0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.280
<v Speaker 2>to being able to work. I like people being able

0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.560
<v Speaker 2>to visit. I hope you like being able to be

0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:50.320
<v Speaker 2>back in. I think it was important that that members

0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.440
<v Speaker 2>actually show up to work as well. You know, to

0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:58.040
<v Speaker 2>paraphrase lou Gerrig he said, I might have been given

0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:02.360
<v Speaker 2>a bad break, truly still consider myself to be the

0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:06.160
<v Speaker 2>luckiest man on the face of the earth. There's no

0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:09.880
<v Speaker 2>other country that you could rise to be the fifty

0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:14.120
<v Speaker 2>fifth speaker, not get an internship and be able to

0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:15.320
<v Speaker 2>fight for the American public.

0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:21.440
<v Speaker 1>Self awareness, it is said, is a gift clearly one

0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:29.880
<v Speaker 1>not bestowed on my Kevin. Now, Kevin McCarthy posited, stated

0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:37.119
<v Speaker 1>something that's quite absurd. He said, he's in it for America.

0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:46.160
<v Speaker 1>That's right. This man a supernova of cynicism, who understood

0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:52.400
<v Speaker 1>full well that on January sixth, the peaceful transition of

0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:57.280
<v Speaker 1>power was being assaulted and assailed at the incitement and

0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:01.640
<v Speaker 1>direction of the President of the United State. In that moment,

0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:11.639
<v Speaker 1>he promised to hold him to account. Instead, he appeased him. Instead,

0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:19.880
<v Speaker 1>Kevin McCarthy used his power to rehabilitate Donald Trump from

0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:25.680
<v Speaker 1>his lowest moment. This is the picture that defines Kevin

0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:32.240
<v Speaker 1>McCarthy's legacy. He will be a pimple, a canker on

0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:39.240
<v Speaker 1>the story of America, a small, sad morality tale, the

0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:42.840
<v Speaker 1>person in the modern era of politics who, more than

0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:49.120
<v Speaker 1>any other, truly fulfilled John Kennedy's warning, his admonition in

0:03:49.200 --> 0:04:00.320
<v Speaker 1>nineteen sixty. Undone by cynicism, undone by cravenness, undone by

0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:07.520
<v Speaker 1>an utter lack of principle for anything beyond his personal ambition.

0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:16.440
<v Speaker 1>Kevin McCarthy stands for lightness. He's a mix between Chauncey

0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:25.600
<v Speaker 1>Gardner and Tracy Flick, lighter than helium, somebody untethered obviously

0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:31.040
<v Speaker 1>to the basic substance of governance, the basic ideas of

0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:37.440
<v Speaker 1>the country. And in the end, Kevin McCarthy seeks to

0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:45.920
<v Speaker 1>portray himself as a victim who opposed the extremism. Kevin

0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:55.640
<v Speaker 1>McCarthy is an extremist. Kevin McCarthy was extremism's handmade in

0:04:55.680 --> 0:05:01.400
<v Speaker 1>the United States Congress. Kevin McCarthy's undoe is because of

0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:05.719
<v Speaker 1>his weakness and his lack of moral fiber, and because

0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:11.080
<v Speaker 1>of the accommodations he made that he knew would lead

0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:15.320
<v Speaker 1>to his undoing, because what he wanted more than anything

0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:22.520
<v Speaker 1>else was a nameplate above his door. For him, that

0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:29.200
<v Speaker 1>was the sum of his service. His open ramble about

0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:35.560
<v Speaker 1>how nobody can understand how it is that Kevin has

0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:39.320
<v Speaker 1>done what he has done, How it is that Kevin

0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:47.279
<v Speaker 1>of Bakersfield, who providentially, according to Kevin, won the lottery

0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:52.240
<v Speaker 1>that helped him open up a sandwich shop, which is

0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:58.480
<v Speaker 1>mostly bs the beginning of his rise to the heights

0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:02.599
<v Speaker 1>of the power of America, the beginning of his rise

0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:06.359
<v Speaker 1>all the way to the top, where he did what

0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:15.440
<v Speaker 1>so borned insurrection, debased the civics of the country. Kevin

0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:22.920
<v Speaker 1>McCarthy is a low and dishonorable man. He is a

0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:27.320
<v Speaker 1>figure who has betrayed his oath over and over and

0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:33.960
<v Speaker 1>over again, who treated this nation's destiny like his private playground,

0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:41.280
<v Speaker 1>and who vandalized our civics, our politics with his bullshit,

0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:49.520
<v Speaker 1>gaslighting and nonsense. And now in the end, Kevin McCarthy

0:06:50.200 --> 0:07:00.480
<v Speaker 1>is deeply aggrieved because, according to Kevin McCarthy, he wasn't saved.

0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:06.800
<v Speaker 1>You guessed it. The person who they blame for all things,

0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:13.280
<v Speaker 1>Nancy Pelosi. You see, as it turns out, in Kevin's

0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:18.960
<v Speaker 1>deluded mind. Nancy Pelosi had committed to him that she'd

0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:23.360
<v Speaker 1>always have his back like he had hers. I suppose

0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:28.480
<v Speaker 1>when her husband was viciously assaulted and Kevin was too

0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:33.480
<v Speaker 1>big a coward to say anything, or the time he

0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:38.640
<v Speaker 1>joked about hitting the eighty year old female speaker of

0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:43.000
<v Speaker 1>the House of Representatives on the head with the gavel.

0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:52.760
<v Speaker 1>Kevin McCarthy desecrated the House of Representatives with his incompetence,

0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:58.160
<v Speaker 1>his ineptitude, and his tolerance for the extremism and this

0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:04.760
<v Speaker 1>edition and the eyes about a stolen election. And now

0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:13.160
<v Speaker 1>Kevin McCarthy is gone, defenestrated inside the tiger that he

0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:20.600
<v Speaker 1>tried to ride, just like President Kennedy predicted. Any person

0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.520
<v Speaker 1>out there who's listening, who has been to the doctor,

0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:26.920
<v Speaker 1>has been through an emergency room, has had a kid

0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.200
<v Speaker 1>have to go to the doctor, go through the emergency room,

0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:36.160
<v Speaker 1>knows how completely absolutely broken health insurance is. It's not understandable.

0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:42.280
<v Speaker 1>Premiums are increasing, deductibles are getting larger, and claims denials

0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.240
<v Speaker 1>are more common than ever. And so this headache of

0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:51.960
<v Speaker 1>health insurance is exactly why you're seeing new companies, new

0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:57.240
<v Speaker 1>ideas that are aimed at disrupting what's so complicated by

0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:01.880
<v Speaker 1>making it simple. And that's what crowd health is and

0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:07.080
<v Speaker 1>that's why it was created. It's not health insurance, but

0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:13.559
<v Speaker 1>it's a better way to pay for health care through crowdfunding.

0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:19.040
<v Speaker 1>So this is a great disruption of something that's complicated

0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:24.040
<v Speaker 1>and broken for average people. And what crowd health does

0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:29.319
<v Speaker 1>is it gives their members the freedom and freedom matters

0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:35.440
<v Speaker 1>in healthcare too efficiently and affordably break free from the

0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:40.400
<v Speaker 1>old insurance system and into a healthcare option that fits

0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:45.800
<v Speaker 1>your needs. It's time you opt out of restrictive health

0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:51.280
<v Speaker 1>insurance plan to let crowd health help fit your healthcare needs.

0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:56.640
<v Speaker 1>Get started today for just fifty dollars per month. Use

0:09:56.800 --> 0:10:03.800
<v Speaker 1>code warning to get the healthcare you deserve. Crowdhealth is

0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:10.560
<v Speaker 1>not insurance. Learn more at join crowdhealth dot com that

0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:20.800
<v Speaker 1>join crowdhealth dot com code Warning. John Kelly was a

0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:25.679
<v Speaker 1>retired United States Marine Corps four star general who had

0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.720
<v Speaker 1>an unblemished record of service to the United States of

0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:36.840
<v Speaker 1>America during the entirety of his military career. John Kelly,

0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:42.920
<v Speaker 1>by choice, chose to join Donald Trump's administration as Chief

0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:48.520
<v Speaker 1>of Staff. He chose to serve in a political capacity

0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:54.800
<v Speaker 1>the most unworthy man and the most unworthy cause since

0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:59.839
<v Speaker 1>the Confederacy. There is no question that John kelly service

0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:04.240
<v Speaker 1>to the United States has been deeply honorable and deeply

0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:09.960
<v Speaker 1>meaningful as a military officer, as has his family service.

0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:17.040
<v Speaker 1>Yet John Kelly's political service was not honorable. And it

0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:21.000
<v Speaker 1>was during that political service that we saw a glimpse

0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:26.400
<v Speaker 1>of John Kelly and some of the extremism that abounds

0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:31.680
<v Speaker 1>within John Kelly. John Kelly talked about the fact that

0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.520
<v Speaker 1>the American Civil War, for instance, was fought because there

0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:39.800
<v Speaker 1>was a failure to compromise, and that Robert E. Lee

0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:47.240
<v Speaker 1>was a deeply honorable man. John Kelly was a principal

0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:53.599
<v Speaker 1>agent of Donald Trump's in Donald Trump's trying to impose

0:11:54.679 --> 0:12:00.200
<v Speaker 1>his obscene and corrupt vision on the United States of

0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:06.280
<v Speaker 1>America in defiance of the law, defiance of the US Constitution,

0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:16.880
<v Speaker 1>basic human rights, common decency, and patriotism. John Kelly's service

0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:21.800
<v Speaker 1>as chief of Staff in the White House raises a

0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:29.840
<v Speaker 1>fundamental question, and that question is about obligation. What is

0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:36.640
<v Speaker 1>the obligation of powerful people to disclose to the American

0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:42.160
<v Speaker 1>people what it is they know in the name of

0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:47.080
<v Speaker 1>the American people that they are keeping from the American

0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:54.640
<v Speaker 1>people to protect a man whose actions might injure the people.

0:12:55.480 --> 0:13:00.000
<v Speaker 1>An official like John Kelly spent in uniform a lifetime

0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:04.440
<v Speaker 1>attacking but also swore an oath to serve as a

0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:09.760
<v Speaker 1>political official as the White House Chief of Staff. Now,

0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:15.480
<v Speaker 1>years after Donald Trump has left office, and even years

0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:19.839
<v Speaker 1>earlier John Kelly left the White House. Here is what

0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:24.120
<v Speaker 1>John Kelly says about Donald Trump. What can I add

0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:28.920
<v Speaker 1>that has not already been said, Kelly said when asked

0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:31.600
<v Speaker 1>if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss

0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:38.120
<v Speaker 1>in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. Quote.

0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:42.559
<v Speaker 1>A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform,

0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:47.559
<v Speaker 1>are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend

0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:52.160
<v Speaker 1>years being tortured as POW's are all suckers because there

0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.319
<v Speaker 1>is nothing in it for them. A person that did

0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.079
<v Speaker 1>not want to be seen in the presence of military

0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:03.080
<v Speaker 1>amputees because it does look good for me. A person

0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:07.880
<v Speaker 1>who demonstrated open contempt for a gold Star family for

0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:13.120
<v Speaker 1>all gold Star families on TV during the twenty sixteen

0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:18.840
<v Speaker 1>campaign and rants that our most precious heroes who gave

0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:24.320
<v Speaker 1>their lives in America's defense are losers. And wouldn't visit

0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:29.600
<v Speaker 1>their graves in France. A person who is not truthful

0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:35.840
<v Speaker 1>regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women,

0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:44.360
<v Speaker 1>on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men

0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:52.880
<v Speaker 1>and women end quote, Kelly continued. A person that has

0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:58.400
<v Speaker 1>no idea what America stands for. It has no idea

0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:06.160
<v Speaker 1>what a America is all about. A person who cavalierly

0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:11.520
<v Speaker 1>suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country

0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:16.440
<v Speaker 1>for forty years in peacetime and war should lose his

0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:24.280
<v Speaker 1>life for treason, an expectation that someone will take action.

0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:33.160
<v Speaker 1>A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person

0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:41.840
<v Speaker 1>that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our constitution,

0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:49.720
<v Speaker 1>and the rule of law. Quote. There is nothing more

0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:57.720
<v Speaker 1>that can be said. End quote. Kelly concluded, God help us,

0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:04.720
<v Speaker 1>General Kelly, how dare you, sir? How dare you say?

0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:09.080
<v Speaker 1>What else can be said? There is so much more

0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:14.640
<v Speaker 1>to be said and must be said by you, from

0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:20.200
<v Speaker 1>one corner of this country to another. You must evangelize

0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:24.480
<v Speaker 1>what you have said and talk to the American people

0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:30.160
<v Speaker 1>and use your character and use the integrity that was

0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:36.320
<v Speaker 1>bestowed on you, by the cloak of your uniform to

0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:41.160
<v Speaker 1>aid the defense of democracy, like you aided the rise

0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:50.800
<v Speaker 1>of autocracy and fascism through your political service to Donald Trump, who,

0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.960
<v Speaker 1>though you knew who he was, you did not tell

0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:59.160
<v Speaker 1>the American people. You were not straight with them. You

0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:08.000
<v Speaker 1>did not keep your faith and your promise to keep

0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:16.360
<v Speaker 1>them safe, because you ebetted a man who did everything

0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:22.680
<v Speaker 1>that you said while you knew he was doing it

0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:28.359
<v Speaker 1>and what the meaning of it was. It is fair

0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:32.359
<v Speaker 1>enough for you to have a conversion and to come

0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:36.800
<v Speaker 1>back and bear again faith to what you spent much

0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:40.960
<v Speaker 1>of your life defending. But how dare you, in this

0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:46.000
<v Speaker 1>moment say there is nothing more to be done. There

0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:50.600
<v Speaker 1>is great damage to be undone, and it starts with

0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:55.200
<v Speaker 1>telling the truth, a truth that was corrupted in part

0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:59.280
<v Speaker 1>by you, and that you can help remedy by telling

0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.800
<v Speaker 1>it from one corner of America to another.