Speaker 1: Life's not fair, and presidential politics isn't fair. You have
Speaker 1: to figure out a way to win. And welcome back
Speaker 1: to another session of Ask Me Anything. And the question
Speaker 1: is from the warning community. If Steve is right that
Speaker 1: it is imperative for Biden in his campaign to hit
Speaker 1: Trump twenty four to seven for eight months, is there
Speaker 1: anyone out there who believes that Biden has the stamina
Speaker 1: to do that. Yes, I will give you two names,
Speaker 1: and then I will give you a third group of people.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden believes he has the stamina. Joe Biden believes
Speaker 1: he has the stamina, and the White House staff who
Speaker 1: believes he has the stamina, And from what I can tell,
Speaker 1: any time they demonstrate behaviors that would lead any normal
Speaker 1: person to question the stamina, they get very angry and
Speaker 1: they start yelling, which makes the problem worse. Simple answer
Speaker 1: to your question is the jury's out and President has
Speaker 1: to step it up. He's got to do a lot better,
Speaker 1: and the White House communication operation needs to get his
Speaker 1: shit together like two years ago, because it's a mess
Speaker 1: and the consequences of that mess are the forty seventh
Speaker 1: President of the United States, Donald John Trump, and that
Speaker 1: is very, very bad. The question is, Steve, what is
Speaker 1: your opinion of the impact the electoral college quote set
Speaker 1: up end quote will have on this election? By setup,
Speaker 1: what I think the question is asking is the structure
Speaker 1: of how we picked the president. And this is something
Speaker 1: that's important to understand. This isn't attract me, this isn't
Speaker 1: a race. Events tilt the field. So I ran John
Speaker 1: McCain's campaign in two thousand and eight. Some people have
Speaker 1: said that even Abraham Lincoln wouldn't have been able to
Speaker 1: get elected against Barack Obama in two thousand and eight
Speaker 1: given the condition of the Republican Party in the unpopularity
Speaker 1: of President Bush, John McCain was running uphill. Barack Obama
Speaker 1: was running downhill, too bad. That's the way it goes.
Speaker 1: The electoral College and how the numbers are displaced across
Speaker 1: the states gives an advantage structurally in the competition for
Speaker 1: the accumulation of two hundred and seventy votes to the
Speaker 1: Republican candidate. Meaning, all things being even, it's easier for
Speaker 1: a Republican to be elected president than it is for
Speaker 1: a Democratic candidate to be elected president. Of course, we
Speaker 1: haven't democratic president, so the attitude towards the electoral college.
Speaker 1: Is that it's broken and impossible for Democrats to win
Speaker 1: is refuted by the incumbency of a Democratic president. But
Speaker 1: the incumbent always has advantages and always has disadvantages. The
Speaker 1: mood of the country shapes the dimensions of the field,
Speaker 1: and the country's in a bad mood. And what that
Speaker 1: means is Joe Biden is running slightly uphill. And that's
Speaker 1: important to understand because at the end of the competition,
Speaker 1: when the presidency has decided, it's unseemly to look back
Speaker 1: at the race and say, well, it wasn't fair. Guess what.
Speaker 1: Life's not fair, and presidential politics isn't fair. You have
Speaker 1: to figure out a way to win because if you don't,
Speaker 1: you lose. When John McCain lost, Barack Obama became president
Speaker 1: and the country wasn't in danger. With Hillary Clinton lost,
Speaker 1: the country was endangered. And if Joe Biden loses, the
Speaker 1: country will face catastrophe. The question is do you think
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris will step down from running again as vice president?
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris will be on the ticket in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four unless President Biden is not on the ticket. They
Speaker 1: stay in together or they go together. There are some
Speaker 1: people who speculate that should Joe Biden get off the ticket,
Speaker 1: it would naturally fall to Kambala Harris, and that is
Speaker 1: simply not so they are a ticket together or not,
Speaker 1: but she will be on the ticket if he is
Speaker 1: on the ticket. The question is is there any way
Speaker 1: that I, one single citizen, can help to do the
Speaker 1: things that you urge the Biden campaign to do from
Speaker 1: now until election day. I live in Texas. What I
Speaker 1: urge you to do is get involved, get online, Get
Speaker 1: involved to your local party or not. Maybe get involved
Speaker 1: as an independent, Get involved in issues, get involved in
Speaker 1: a cause, Get involved in local government, state government, national government.
Speaker 1: Volunteer for the campaign, go to a swing state, do something.
Speaker 1: Use your contacts, your social media platforms to reach out
Speaker 1: to talk. Maybe invite people over, Invite people over in
Speaker 1: your community, a neighborhood who disagree with one another, to
Speaker 1: calmly and rationally talk. Say we're scared to death. What
Speaker 1: do you think it means when he says he wants retribution?
Speaker 1: Let me ask your neighbor, are you ready to put
Speaker 1: me up against the wall and shoot me in the
Speaker 1: head because I'm a Democrat. Because there's a significant percentage
Speaker 1: around Trump that think that's a good idea. There's no
Speaker 1: handbook for citizenship. It's not top down, it's bottom up.
Speaker 1: I just urge you to get involved, read, share your reading,
Speaker 1: understand the history of the country, its ideas, it's ideals,
Speaker 1: it's false it's glories. It evangelize. The question is is
Speaker 1: how do you think the country would be different today?
Speaker 1: If the two thousand election had gone the other way.
Speaker 1: The country would be profoundly different today because al Gore,
Speaker 1: a Vietnam veteran, would not have invaded Iraq, and the
Speaker 1: consequences of the evasion of Iraq are something we'll live
Speaker 1: with for the balance of this century. The result in
Speaker 1: powered Iran. It turned Iran into a regional hegemon. It
Speaker 1: unleashed chaos in the region and expanded vastly the power
Speaker 1: of the Iranian state, which is fomenting war across the
Speaker 1: Middle East. The war in Gaza is in fact a
Speaker 1: proxy war Iran is waging against both Iran and the
Speaker 1: United States. Do you know that there are one hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty eight Americans who have been wounded since October
Speaker 1: seventh over these last months in military actions in the
Speaker 1: Red Sea. One hundred sixty eight. All of this is
Speaker 1: spillover from the Iraq War, and it never would have
Speaker 1: happened if alf War had been president. Thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to my political commentary. If you like what you
Speaker 1: heard today, please also consider subscribing to The Warning daily
Speaker 1: newsletter on Substack. Our democracy hangs in the balance. The
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four presidential election is the most consequential in
Speaker 1: America's history. It's not hyperbole it's a fact. That is
Speaker 1: why the mission of the Warning with Steve Schmidt is
Speaker 1: to help readers orient to the currents that are shaping
Speaker 1: our times and the unseen forces driving politics that are
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Speaker 1: Steve Schmidt st E V E, S, C, H, M, I,
Speaker 1: d T dot substack dot com again Steve Schmidt dot
Speaker 1: substack dot com, or at the link in the show
Speaker 1: notes section below. Thank you to each and every one
Speaker 1: of you for listening and watching.