Speaker 1: The very same people who are saying that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: can't win are the very same people who said he
Speaker 1: couldn't win in twenty and sixteen. This is the warning.
Speaker 1: Welcome to another Ask Me Anything session. This is our
Speaker 1: second one, and if you continue to enjoy them, we'll
Speaker 1: keep them going. We've gotten hundreds of questions and I'm
Speaker 1: going to answer some of them right now. The question
Speaker 1: is what needs to be done to get Biden elected? Well,
Speaker 1: the simplest answer to that question is President Biden must
Speaker 1: secure two hundred and seventy electoral votes in order to
Speaker 1: be re elected president of the United States. The last
Speaker 1: election he won by forty four thousand votes across three states.
Speaker 1: This election will likely feature more than two candidates that
Speaker 1: are capable of getting over thirty percent of the vote,
Speaker 1: so functionally, this will be a three way race. And
Speaker 1: that's why it's so important for the Biden team to
Speaker 1: understand the situation that was faced by Harry Truman in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight. Harry Truman was faced with the position
Speaker 1: where there were in effect three Democrats running for president
Speaker 1: against one Republican, Thomas Dewey. And so there's a famous
Speaker 1: newspaper headline that says, Dewey defeats Truman, and later there's
Speaker 1: a picture of Harry Truman holding that Chicago newspaper from
Speaker 1: the back of the Ferdinand Magellan railcarps number one loading
Speaker 1: happy having been re elected. Harry Truman had a candidate,
Speaker 1: Henry Wallace, a former vice president under FDR, running to
Speaker 1: his left, and he had strom Thurmond, the South Carolina segregationist,
Speaker 1: running to his right. This was all part of the
Speaker 1: most issac of the Democratic Party, and in the end
Speaker 1: Harry Truman won the game, playing with the deck as
Speaker 1: it was dealt. Now, specifically, what Joe Biden has to
Speaker 1: do is he has to bring the fight to Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: He has to push the MAGA movement outside the mainstream
Speaker 1: of Americanism. Corporate media in America has covered the MAGA
Speaker 1: movement and has covered the rise of Donald Trump for
Speaker 1: the last seven years through a couple of different prisms.
Speaker 1: The first was a profit opportunity. The chairman of CBS
Speaker 1: News once made it clear Trump may be terrible for America,
Speaker 1: but he's great for CBS, and he was great for Fox,
Speaker 1: and he was great for CNN, and he was great
Speaker 1: for MSNBC. All the while these networks normalized behavior and
Speaker 1: refuse to call his dogma, his ideology what it actually is,
Speaker 1: which is fascism. So Joe Biden will have to take
Speaker 1: the fight to Donald Trump by explaining eight years on
Speaker 1: what this is and the madness that is exploding around
Speaker 1: the country. Just look at the Republican Maga party in Congress.
Speaker 1: In the last forty eight hours. They have strangled aid
Speaker 1: to Ukraine, they have strangled AID to Israel, they have
Speaker 1: attempted to impeach the Homeland Security Secretary. There is an
Speaker 1: uprising against Mitch McConnell. Everywhere you look in the Republican
Speaker 1: Maga cabal, there is chaos and it is a harbinger
Speaker 1: of the chaos that will come to the country preceding
Speaker 1: the catastrophe that is inevitable should Trump win. And that's
Speaker 1: what the race must be about. Joe Biden must convince
Speaker 1: the American people at eighty two years old, that he
Speaker 1: is ready for four more years and that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: is simply an unacceptable alternative. And the Biden campaign has
Speaker 1: to acknowledge something. There are a lot of people, me included,
Speaker 1: who are deeply and I mean deeply unhappy about voting
Speaker 1: to reelect an eighty two year old president. Yet that
Speaker 1: is the only choice we have as good Americans. So
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, more than most, is going to have to
Speaker 1: court openly and honestly an unhappy electorate that will be
Speaker 1: with him, but also deserves some acknowledgment from him. Here's
Speaker 1: a question, and I think it's a really important one.
Speaker 1: If we want Biden to win the general election, wouldn't
Speaker 1: it be better for Trump to be the GOP candidate
Speaker 1: rather than Nicky Haley. This is important to be honest about,
Speaker 1: and it represents one of the Biden team's greatest derelictions
Speaker 1: during the entire course of his presidency. And what I'm
Speaker 1: about to say is beyond any dispute. There are literally
Speaker 1: a hundred quotes from Biden administration officials saying three things,
Speaker 1: all of them anonymous, of course, One that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: is the candidate that Biden is best matched against. Two
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump is the candidate that Democrats want because
Speaker 1: he's the easiest for Biden to be And number three,
Speaker 1: Biden beat him once, so he can beat him again.
Speaker 1: All of this ignoring, of course, residented threat that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump poses to the American way of life. The most
Speaker 1: irresponsible conceivable position to have an American politics is to
Speaker 1: root for Donald Trump to advance closer to power so
Speaker 1: he can be defeated. There Trump is a menace and
Speaker 1: a danger, and it should be the focus of all
Speaker 1: who stand in opposition to him to oppose him at
Speaker 1: the furthest point from political power as possible. The fact
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee again for
Speaker 1: the third election cycle in a row, and again after
Speaker 1: inciting insurrection and paralyze the country's politics, citing insanity across America,
Speaker 1: weakening our standing abroad, dividing us at home, the idea
Speaker 1: that anybody would cheer him on so their candidate, their guy,
Speaker 1: their preferred person, could beat him because he's the easiest
Speaker 1: guy to beat, and Trump could never get elected again.
Speaker 1: I think it's the most irresponsible position there is an
Speaker 1: American politics. And let me be clear about this. The
Speaker 1: very same people who are saying that Donald Trump can't
Speaker 1: win are the very same people who said he couldn't
Speaker 1: win in twenty sixteen. And I was never one of
Speaker 1: those people. In fact, I was the first person when
Speaker 1: he came down the escalator and the whole corporate media
Speaker 1: said he was a clown and a joke who said, no,
Speaker 1: he could win, he could be the Republican nominee. And later,
Speaker 1: when he was racking up victory after victory, I was
Speaker 1: among the first to say he is winning, he's going
Speaker 1: to win, and he could be president. And he did
Speaker 1: become president, and the catastrophe that followed is a historic one.
Speaker 1: There is a dogma in American politics that is formed
Speaker 1: by repetition, and the repetition is that the American political
Speaker 1: system is immune from disruption, that the two political parties
Speaker 1: a duopoly will permanently enjoy that duopoly in perpetuity, that
Speaker 1: somehow the political parties are constitutional, which they're not. The
Speaker 1: political parties in the country have been failing for a
Speaker 1: long time. Both are held in low esteem by the
Speaker 1: American people. And the fastest growing party in America is
Speaker 1: declined to state or independent. So could an American patriot
Speaker 1: run as an independent and win the presidency? Absolutely are
Speaker 1: there impediments to that one hundred percent. Will it happen
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four? It will not. But could it
Speaker 1: happen in twenty twenty eight? Could it happen in twenty
Speaker 1: thirty two? It could? And let me tell you this
Speaker 1: scenario by which it is most likely to happen. Nobody
Speaker 1: talks about what happens to the Democratic Party if it's
Speaker 1: defeated by Trump. My view is, if the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: loses a presidential election to Donald Trump in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: the party will be destroyed. Who amongst the Democratic leadership
Speaker 1: will be the first to say say that an independent
Speaker 1: candidacy is a spoiler, a spoiler of what at that point,
Speaker 1: because there will be nothing left to spoil. There will
Speaker 1: only be a country to rescue, and the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: would have demonstrated its incapacity to compete on that field. So, therefore,
Speaker 1: people who want to see a restoration of American democracy,
Speaker 1: American pluralism, American decency will have to look outside, or
Speaker 1: will be open to looking outside that system to find
Speaker 1: a candidate who can lead an American restoration. The question
Speaker 1: is what can we do about all of the false
Speaker 1: media information? Nothing. There's nothing that you can do. There
Speaker 1: are thousands of stories that have been written where I
Speaker 1: have been featured and quoted in the story. There have
Speaker 1: been a lot of profiles written about me over the years.
Speaker 1: There are factual errors, simple ones, but ones that drive
Speaker 1: me crazy. In every story, the fact is, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: The New York Times, the Washington Post, Vanity Fair, the
Speaker 1: overwhelming majority of stories that you read from the most
Speaker 1: respected news outlets are riddled with error all the time.
Speaker 1: Though misinformation is different just outright lies. And we see that.
Speaker 1: We see it on Fox News, we see it on Newsmax,
Speaker 1: we see it onan The President of the United States,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, lied to the American people a documented thirty
Speaker 1: five thousand times. Until the American people are ready to
Speaker 1: sort fact from fiction, are ready to put in the
Speaker 1: effort to know what is real what is not, to
Speaker 1: do the homework, the country's going to be plagued by
Speaker 1: an inability to tell what is true, what is false,
Speaker 1: what is up, what is down? What is red, what
Speaker 1: is blue? And there's a simple issue connected to this,
Speaker 1: and it says, can democracy survive in a country where
Speaker 1: nobody can distinguish fact from delusion, nobody can tell the
Speaker 1: truth from the lie. And the answer is no. So
Speaker 1: this isn't a political issue. This is a whole society problem.
Speaker 1: When the truth collapses, dictatorships rise. And that is one
Speaker 1: of the central lessons of the twentieth century and of
Speaker 1: modern history. The truth is essential in a democracy, and
Speaker 1: there is no healthy democracy that countenances tolerates the level
Speaker 1: of lying that has become routine in American politics and
Speaker 1: reported across the American media. The question is what impact
Speaker 1: do you see for a US Canada relationship. The United
Speaker 1: States and Canada maintained the longest peaceful, undefended border in
Speaker 1: world history, across which one trillion dollars in annual trade flows.
Speaker 1: The Canadian American relationship is sustained by family relationships, by marriage,
Speaker 1: by military partnership, by great sacrifices in the name of freedom,
Speaker 1: and also by common values. Donald Trump does not share
Speaker 1: Canada's values, and he does not share America's values. If
Speaker 1: he comes to power, he will come to power in
Speaker 1: America with an autocrat's heart, and that will be incompatible
Speaker 1: with Canadian values. So there will be inherent in tensions
Speaker 1: between a Trump led America in Canada. And also, Trump
Speaker 1: is a protectionist and he will do everything in every
Speaker 1: transaction to try to gain advantage against Canadian interests for
Speaker 1: the sake of America's interests. Trump is a zero sum believer.
Speaker 1: He doesn't believe that two sides can both win. He
Speaker 1: believes that there is a winner, and that there is
Speaker 1: a loser in every deal, in every transaction, and because
Speaker 1: of that, he doesn't understand the value of alliances and
Speaker 1: relationships forged by common history, shared values, and shared sacrifice.
Speaker 1: And so the Canadian US relationship and a Trump presidency
Speaker 1: will deteriorate. It will be strained, and Canada will have
Speaker 1: a hard time at times dealing with the President Trump,
Speaker 1: who will more likely than not be looking south across
Speaker 1: the border towards Mexico, which will have an enormous problem
Speaker 1: should Trump be re elected, but will be good for
Speaker 1: Canada in that Trump isn't known for being able to
Speaker 1: cast his attention on several issues at once. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening to my political commentary. If you like what
Speaker 1: you heard today, please also consider subscribing to The Warning
Speaker 1: daily newsletter on substack. Our democracy hangs in the balance.
Speaker 1: The twenty twenty four presidential election is the most consequential
Speaker 1: in America's history. It's not hyperbole, it's a fact. That
Speaker 1: is why the mission of The Warning with Steve Schmidt
Speaker 1: is to help readers orient to the currents that are
Speaker 1: shaping our times and the unseen forces drive having politics
Speaker 1: that are very rarely discussed on cable news. Please sign
Speaker 1: up at Steve Schmidt S T, E V E, S C, H,
Speaker 1: M I d T dot substack dot com again Steve
Speaker 1: Schmidt dot substack dot com, or at the link in
Speaker 1: the show notes section below. Thank you to each and
Speaker 1: every one of you for listening and watching