1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:05,320 Speaker 1: We have arrived at a terrible moment in American politics. 2 00:00:05,519 --> 00:00:10,119 Speaker 1: There are two hundred and sixty six days until America decides. 3 00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:16,720 Speaker 1: It is February thirteenth, Valentine's Day Eve, and this is 4 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:22,360 Speaker 1: my warning. John Berman is CNN's superb morning anchor, and 5 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:26,960 Speaker 1: he asked a question of CNN analysts Bacary Sellers, who's 6 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:28,120 Speaker 1: a very smart guy. 7 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:34,360 Speaker 2: Here's the question, Pacary, if this campaign becomes Trump versus Biden, 8 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:40,120 Speaker 2: and if it devolves into something like old versus dangerous. 9 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:44,000 Speaker 2: If Democrats say Donald Trump is dangerous, Republicans say Joe 10 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:46,840 Speaker 2: Biden is old, is that a race that Democrats would 11 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:47,640 Speaker 2: be confident about. 12 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:50,879 Speaker 1: Let's talk about the question for a minute before we 13 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:56,480 Speaker 1: get into Bacary Seller's answer. The question is completely logical. 14 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:00,320 Speaker 1: In fact, if you look at the race and you 15 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:03,960 Speaker 1: read all of the news coverage about it. What John 16 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:10,640 Speaker 1: Berman has asked is exactly where most of DC's conventional 17 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:15,720 Speaker 1: wisdom lays, which is, the race will be a choice 18 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:19,399 Speaker 1: for the American people between a candidate they think is 19 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:23,480 Speaker 1: too old and one they worry about is too dangerous. 20 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:31,120 Speaker 1: That's the race old versus dangerous. Except that's not what 21 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:34,880 Speaker 1: the race will be about. The thing about presidential politics 22 00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:39,039 Speaker 1: is most times you don't get from point A to 23 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:42,760 Speaker 1: B in a straight line. You have to tack to 24 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:46,959 Speaker 1: get there. You have to move on the obliques, on 25 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:50,560 Speaker 1: the angles. And so when you look at an issue 26 00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:55,960 Speaker 1: like this old versus dangerous, there's a higher face card 27 00:01:56,320 --> 00:02:00,320 Speaker 1: that develops out of that contrast that is not a 28 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: good one for the Democrats. And that is what we 29 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,840 Speaker 1: must talk about today, lest we go over the cliff 30 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:13,959 Speaker 1: like political lemmings. Here's the important thing to understand. How 31 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:18,040 Speaker 1: is it that Donald Trump came to power? And what 32 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:24,280 Speaker 1: was it that Republicans believed about Barack Obama's presidency in 33 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:29,720 Speaker 1: twenty fifteen when Trump came down the escalator at Trump Tower. 34 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:34,000 Speaker 1: What millions and millions of Republicans believed across the country. 35 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:39,760 Speaker 1: Was it that Barack Obama had failed? They believed he succeeded. 36 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:44,200 Speaker 1: Barack Obama had set out to transform America, and they 37 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:48,880 Speaker 1: believed he did exactly that and he wrecked it. But 38 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:52,360 Speaker 1: they believed he didn't do it alone. They believed he 39 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:56,880 Speaker 1: did it with the help of a complicit, effeckless, corrupt, 40 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:04,639 Speaker 1: accommodationist Republican in Congress. This is why the Republican establishment 41 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:09,920 Speaker 1: is hated so much by the Republican base. Now, let's 42 00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:14,320 Speaker 1: go back to that twenty fifteen election, and specifically to 43 00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:18,680 Speaker 1: the Jet Bush campaign. What Jet Bush believed looking in 44 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:22,360 Speaker 1: the mirror was that after eight years of progressive politics 45 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:28,120 Speaker 1: and Barack Obama, what the Republican Party wanted was a smart, capable, 46 00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:33,799 Speaker 1: accomplished conservative governor. That's not what they wanted. What they 47 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:39,760 Speaker 1: wanted was strength to offset the weakness that they felt 48 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:45,240 Speaker 1: was endemic to the Republican establishment. And the strength and 49 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:48,920 Speaker 1: the toughness that they looked for was the phony toughness 50 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:52,280 Speaker 1: of Donald Trump, who was able to climb in the 51 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:58,600 Speaker 1: race because he emasculated Jet Bush. He defenestrated him, He 52 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:03,080 Speaker 1: made him look weak, He made all of them look weak, 53 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:08,840 Speaker 1: Little Marco attacking Ted Cruz's father and wife and then 54 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:14,120 Speaker 1: watching Ted Cruz genuflect to him at each instance. Trump 55 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 1: feeds on weakness, and Trump's strength has been the image 56 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:25,440 Speaker 1: within his base that he is the strong leader. His 57 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:34,200 Speaker 1: campaign is a classical authoritarian strong man campaign. Now, let 58 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:42,880 Speaker 1: me be clear, Donald Trump is completely, utterly and absolutely dangerous. 59 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:49,560 Speaker 1: He is unhinged. He is an accused criminal. There is 60 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:57,080 Speaker 1: no comparison whatsoever between the characters of President Biden and 61 00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:03,760 Speaker 1: Donald Trump. But elections aren't fair, and so the contrast 62 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:09,120 Speaker 1: that has come to be is one between decrepitude and 63 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:14,680 Speaker 1: sinility and strength and vigor, the strong man versus the 64 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:20,120 Speaker 1: one who can't communicate strength versus weakness. And here's the 65 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:24,919 Speaker 1: problem for Democrats, and thus here's the problem for America. 66 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:33,000 Speaker 1: There has never, ever, ever been a presidential election where 67 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:39,720 Speaker 1: the candidate defined as weak and infirmed or disabled in 68 00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:46,360 Speaker 1: any way has ever won. The candidate perceived as weak 69 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:53,039 Speaker 1: always and I mean always loses the presidential race in 70 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:58,239 Speaker 1: American politics. The race that must be run against Donald 71 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:06,279 Speaker 1: Trump buyers that Trump be defined as crazy, unhinged, but 72 00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:12,039 Speaker 1: also weak and also dangerous. He must be all of 73 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:16,360 Speaker 1: those things. He must be attacked from a position of strength. 74 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:20,560 Speaker 1: And this is what is so worrying about this moment 75 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:25,440 Speaker 1: in time. A year ago, as Jonathan Martin of Politico reports, 76 00:06:26,200 --> 00:06:30,960 Speaker 1: Democrats talked all the time about how worried they were 77 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:35,560 Speaker 1: about Biden. And what emerged from that is the dumbest 78 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:41,600 Speaker 1: and I mean fucking dumbest piece of conventional wisdom. Maybe ever. 79 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:48,160 Speaker 1: It was the idea that if in Washington, the obvious 80 00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:55,120 Speaker 1: was talked about truthfully, directly and with candor. It would 81 00:06:55,200 --> 00:07:02,640 Speaker 1: somehow help Donald Trump, as if the American people hadn't 82 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:07,400 Speaker 1: made the judgment on their own. Eighty six percent of 83 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:13,440 Speaker 1: the country doesn't want the rematch between President Biden and 84 00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:18,000 Speaker 1: Donald Trump. Yet the political establishment, which includes the media, 85 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:23,520 Speaker 1: is foisting it on them, jamming it down their throats. 86 00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:27,960 Speaker 1: And so what the media gets wrong about this is 87 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 1: what Macary Sellers gets wrong about it. There's nobody in 88 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:37,480 Speaker 1: the country who thinks Joe Biden, because of his age, 89 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:41,119 Speaker 1: is the wisest man in a nation of three hundred 90 00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:46,560 Speaker 1: and forty million people. This is delusional. Joe Biden is 91 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:54,880 Speaker 1: not to most accomplished grandpa quote unquote in American history. 92 00:07:55,040 --> 00:07:57,960 Speaker 1: He's not, and that's not what the campaign should be 93 00:07:57,960 --> 00:08:03,120 Speaker 1: built on. Or this is a smart guy, but this 94 00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:11,160 Speaker 1: isn't real and where this leads is too disaster. Let's 95 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:12,000 Speaker 1: watch his answer. 96 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:17,240 Speaker 2: But Gary, if this campaign becomes Trump versus Biden, and 97 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:22,640 Speaker 2: if it devolves into something like old versus dangerous, if 98 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:26,800 Speaker 2: Democrats say Donald Trump is dangerous, Republicans say Joe Biden 99 00:08:26,880 --> 00:08:29,360 Speaker 2: is old, is that a race that Democrats would be 100 00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:30,400 Speaker 2: confident about man. 101 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:32,480 Speaker 3: That was the weakest if I've ever heard you use 102 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 3: John There's no there's no need for the words. If 103 00:08:36,559 --> 00:08:40,360 Speaker 3: this is this is Joe Biden versus Donald Trump, point 104 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:43,679 Speaker 3: blank period. So yes, I think the Democrats, I mean 105 00:08:43,679 --> 00:08:47,280 Speaker 3: we we are proverbial bedwinners. Right, So anytime somebody says 106 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:50,760 Speaker 3: something harsh about about the president, or he mistakes the 107 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:55,679 Speaker 3: president of Egypt for representing Mexico, we just we just 108 00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:56,560 Speaker 3: wring our hands. 109 00:08:56,559 --> 00:08:58,440 Speaker 1: I mean, we go clutch our pearls. 110 00:08:58,440 --> 00:09:02,080 Speaker 3: We just go absolutely nuts. Look, our candidate is the 111 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:05,680 Speaker 3: president of the United States. He's old, he's eighty, But 112 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:09,160 Speaker 3: this eighty year old man has accomplished more than any 113 00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:12,520 Speaker 3: other grandfather in the history of the United States of America. Like, 114 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:17,600 Speaker 3: he's actually performed the task. Well, he's gotten bipartisan legislation through. 115 00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:21,600 Speaker 3: And the alternative is someone who's dangerous. I mean, let's 116 00:09:21,679 --> 00:09:23,760 Speaker 3: embrace what it is. I don't know why the White 117 00:09:23,800 --> 00:09:27,600 Speaker 3: House is afraid of it. Embrace it. He's old, but look, 118 00:09:27,760 --> 00:09:30,440 Speaker 3: he's better than the alternative. And that alternative is somebody 119 00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:33,480 Speaker 3: dangerous who has ninety one felony accounts, who owe by 120 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:36,000 Speaker 3: the way, who wants to talk about other people's families. 121 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:38,559 Speaker 3: But he has five kids by three baby mamas. I mean, 122 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:42,040 Speaker 3: let's actually have this discussion on the merits, and I 123 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:43,440 Speaker 3: believe we would win that election. 124 00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:48,240 Speaker 1: I'm going to be clear and tell you how Joe 125 00:09:48,240 --> 00:09:52,199 Speaker 1: Biden wins. The fight must be brought to Donald Trump. 126 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:56,720 Speaker 1: The last thought the American people have walking into the 127 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:01,920 Speaker 1: voting both must be of Donald Trump. Yet Trump has 128 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:08,160 Speaker 1: reinvigorated his extremist movement. It's better organized, better funded, and 129 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:13,160 Speaker 1: better led than it has ever been. It has never 130 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:18,959 Speaker 1: posed more danger than it poses today. Donald Trump is 131 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:23,240 Speaker 1: ahead in the polls. Donald Trump is raising money handover fist, 132 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:28,840 Speaker 1: and Donald Trump is certain to be the Republican nominee. 133 00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:33,120 Speaker 1: President Biden didn't appear on the Super Bowl. President of 134 00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:37,680 Speaker 1: Biden doesn't appear in public very often. President Biden must 135 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:41,280 Speaker 1: be at the front of his campaign, and he must 136 00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:46,040 Speaker 1: take the fight to the mag of movement. He must 137 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:49,920 Speaker 1: scorn Trump. He must mock him, He must diminish him, 138 00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:54,240 Speaker 1: he must dismiss him, he must laugh at him, and 139 00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:59,880 Speaker 1: he must lead the country in rebuking him. Presidential campaign 140 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:04,760 Speaker 1: or not. Entitlements earned because you did what you said 141 00:11:04,840 --> 00:11:08,760 Speaker 1: you were going to do to get the job. Reelection 142 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,840 Speaker 1: is not a thank you cookie. The thank you the 143 00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:14,599 Speaker 1: president gets his Air Force one and Marine one in 144 00:11:14,679 --> 00:11:17,800 Speaker 1: Camp David in the White House and all the great 145 00:11:17,840 --> 00:11:22,520 Speaker 1: shit that goes along with the job. Presidential elections are 146 00:11:22,520 --> 00:11:29,000 Speaker 1: about the future, about what's next, and Donald Trump is 147 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:37,959 Speaker 1: attacking the pillars of global society and of America's way 148 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:44,480 Speaker 1: of life. He's assaulting the foundation. When the UN was formed, 149 00:11:45,679 --> 00:11:49,080 Speaker 1: it was from the ashes of a war that killed 150 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:56,800 Speaker 1: almost one hundred million people. Our grandparents or great grandparents 151 00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:07,400 Speaker 1: had the wisdom, judgment, the rectitude to build out of 152 00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:13,840 Speaker 1: their imaginations. Enduring institutions, though not perfect, because they're run 153 00:12:13,880 --> 00:12:20,079 Speaker 1: by people, have kept the peace and prevented World War three. 154 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:24,360 Speaker 1: And this is what Donald Trump is assaulting. This is 155 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:27,920 Speaker 1: what Donald Trump is trying to dismantle, and the result 156 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:32,040 Speaker 1: of it will be hundreds and hundreds of thousands of 157 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:38,360 Speaker 1: dead young Americans. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were 158 00:12:38,480 --> 00:12:43,520 Speaker 1: terrible in their endurance and their cost in blood and treasure, 159 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:49,040 Speaker 1: but the casualties in those wars were not in the 160 00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:54,400 Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands or in the millions. Because that's what 161 00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:59,200 Speaker 1: the casualty numbers will be in a global war. And 162 00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:03,000 Speaker 1: anybody who tells you that America won't be part of 163 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:06,520 Speaker 1: a global war in the third decade of the twenty 164 00:13:06,559 --> 00:13:10,520 Speaker 1: first century, that Donald Trump could keep us out, as 165 00:13:10,640 --> 00:13:17,280 Speaker 1: Vladimir Putin, that his invitation rampaged across Europe, is crazy 166 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:22,440 Speaker 1: and they're lying to you. We have arrived at a 167 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:29,040 Speaker 1: terrible moment in American politics. We have arrived at a 168 00:13:29,120 --> 00:13:33,760 Speaker 1: desperate and dangerous hour. And it's the job of the 169 00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:38,520 Speaker 1: Biden campaign to tell the American people how it's going 170 00:13:38,559 --> 00:13:41,160 Speaker 1: to end, how we're going to get out of it, 171 00:13:41,440 --> 00:13:45,560 Speaker 1: how we're going to move on. And thus far the 172 00:13:45,679 --> 00:13:51,360 Speaker 1: campaign is not measuring up because Donald Trump is on 173 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:56,640 Speaker 1: track to be the forty seventh president of the United States, 174 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:03,120 Speaker 1: and that, my friends, is a national catastrophe. The only 175 00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:06,319 Speaker 1: thing about it is we have a lot of time 176 00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:10,640 Speaker 1: to still do something about it, so we shut Thank 177 00:14:10,679 --> 00:14:14,640 Speaker 1: you for listening to my political commentary. If you like 178 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:18,800 Speaker 1: what you heard today, please also consider subscribing to The 179 00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:24,360 Speaker 1: Warning Daily newsletter on substack. Our democracy hangs in the balance. 180 00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:29,600 Speaker 1: The twenty twenty four presidential election is the most consequential 181 00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:34,080 Speaker 1: in America's history. It's not hyperbole. It's a fact. That 182 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:37,320 Speaker 1: is why the mission of the Warning with Steve Schmidt 183 00:14:37,520 --> 00:14:40,440 Speaker 1: is to help readers orient to the currents that are 184 00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:45,640 Speaker 1: shaping our times and the unseen forces driving politics that 185 00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:50,160 Speaker 1: are very rarely discussed on cable news. Please sign up 186 00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:55,560 Speaker 1: at Steve Schmidt st e ve, E, S, C, H, M, I, 187 00:14:55,760 --> 00:15:03,400 Speaker 1: d T dot substack dot com again Steve Schmidt dot 188 00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:07,240 Speaker 1: substack dot com, or at the link in the show 189 00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:11,480 Speaker 1: notes section below. Thank you to each and every one 190 00:15:11,520 --> 00:15:13,960 Speaker 1: of you for listening and watching