1 00:00:03,920 --> 00:00:10,680 Speaker 1: Everywhere around America. There's goodness happening in small towns and villages, 2 00:00:11,440 --> 00:00:16,119 Speaker 1: communities from coast to coast. The American people are not 3 00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:21,320 Speaker 1: the sum of America's politics. We are not derivative of 4 00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:24,920 Speaker 1: the political parties or their leadership. It is hard to 5 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:32,559 Speaker 1: overstate how broken American politics is, how corrupt it has become, 6 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:36,040 Speaker 1: and what it means for the future of the country. 7 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:42,720 Speaker 1: American politics, such as it stands in twenty twenty three, 8 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:48,680 Speaker 1: is the singularly greatest marker of decay, suggesting that the 9 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:56,000 Speaker 1: American Republic is rotting, that it's sick, that it's falling apart. Certainly, 10 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:59,400 Speaker 1: it is the case that the defining issue of this 11 00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:05,200 Speaker 1: moment of time is the complete and absolute eradication of 12 00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:10,520 Speaker 1: trust between the American people and so many of the 13 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:17,000 Speaker 1: most important institutions of the country. They aren't just political institutions. 14 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:22,560 Speaker 1: They include the news media, the Catholic Church, and many 15 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:29,520 Speaker 1: many others institutions that shattered the bonds of affection and 16 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:38,200 Speaker 1: trust that were durable, lifelong, and intergenerational because of misconduct. 17 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:45,119 Speaker 1: Perspective matters in all things in life. A twenty year 18 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:49,320 Speaker 1: old sees the world very differently as they should from 19 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:53,080 Speaker 1: a forty year old who sees it differently than a 20 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:56,760 Speaker 1: sixty year old, and no doubt sees it differently than 21 00:01:56,800 --> 00:02:00,640 Speaker 1: an eighty year old or somebody who reaches their one 22 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:05,600 Speaker 1: hundredth year. It seems impossible to imagine just a few 23 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:10,400 Speaker 1: short years ago the world lived in a moment where 24 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaker 1: nobody had ever seen a picture of the Earth set 25 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:19,200 Speaker 1: against the blackness of space. In nineteen forty six, this 26 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:24,720 Speaker 1: picture a very grainy image showing the curvature of the 27 00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 1: Earth from a camera strapped to top a captured German 28 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:33,680 Speaker 1: V two rocket. In nineteen sixty eight, Bill Anders took 29 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:39,160 Speaker 1: this picture. It captures the Earth set against the blackness 30 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:45,600 Speaker 1: of space. It captivated the imagination of every human being 31 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:49,440 Speaker 1: on the planet who saw it. It's the most famous 32 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:56,760 Speaker 1: photograph in human history, and it's astonishing. Think about the aperture, 33 00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:02,480 Speaker 1: the lens, the people who took it, or looking back 34 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:07,560 Speaker 1: at our planet separated from it in a small capsule 35 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:12,800 Speaker 1: manufactured in the United States of America coming around the 36 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:18,120 Speaker 1: far side of the Moon fifty three years ago. It 37 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:25,280 Speaker 1: is an astonishing achievement for science, but also the spirituality 38 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:30,840 Speaker 1: of the human being and the human race. To be 39 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 1: able to see at the end our common humanity and 40 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:42,320 Speaker 1: our common interest through a single photograph of our shared home. 41 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:47,480 Speaker 1: Fast forward to twenty twenty three. These are pictures from 42 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:52,560 Speaker 1: the web telescope. It has claimed to be the most 43 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:59,080 Speaker 1: advanced scientific instrument ever conceived and built by the imagination 44 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:03,680 Speaker 1: of mankind. It works in outer space. And what these 45 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:08,000 Speaker 1: pictures are in essence or a glimpse at the beginning 46 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:14,400 Speaker 1: of time. They are astounding images. What they speak to 47 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:19,960 Speaker 1: is the creation itself, the moment where the universe began. 48 00:04:21,400 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 1: Imponderable questions, These questions are we alone in the universe 49 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:32,640 Speaker 1: that seem to dominate on the periphery of our politics 50 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:38,919 Speaker 1: in this divided moment, or existential ones, and they're worth 51 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 1: pondering thinking about the beginning of time, the beginning of humanity, 52 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:54,000 Speaker 1: our existence as human beings has taken place in a 53 00:04:54,040 --> 00:05:00,960 Speaker 1: proverbial blink of an eye. Contemporaneous to these image of 54 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:06,080 Speaker 1: exploration that show an evolution of understanding about our planet 55 00:05:06,520 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 1: from that first black and white, grainy image offering the 56 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:15,839 Speaker 1: perspective of a small slice, to the ability to appreciate 57 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:20,520 Speaker 1: the beauty of the Earth as a whole, to the 58 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:26,560 Speaker 1: ability to look outwards to the beginning, to the beginning 59 00:05:26,640 --> 00:05:31,600 Speaker 1: of creation. All of these images and all of these 60 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:38,000 Speaker 1: advances that have given us a greater understanding of the existential, 61 00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:45,760 Speaker 1: the spiritual, that help us ponder the beginning of civilization 62 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:53,719 Speaker 1: and history and life itself take place at a time 63 00:05:54,240 --> 00:06:01,200 Speaker 1: where humanity also developed the capacity to extinct itself. The 64 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:08,960 Speaker 1: same technologies, the same vision, the same genius that unleashed 65 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:16,640 Speaker 1: these spectacular photographs also unleashed these terrible weapons and the 66 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:24,040 Speaker 1: capacity to deliver them anywhere on Earth. There's a new movie, Oppenheimer. 67 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:29,520 Speaker 1: It's getting a lot of attention. It deserves it. I 68 00:06:29,680 --> 00:06:33,760 Speaker 1: encourage you to watch it. It is a profound experience 69 00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:39,919 Speaker 1: sitting in a movie theater witnessing the recreation of the 70 00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:44,320 Speaker 1: dawn of the atomic age, the era that we have 71 00:06:44,440 --> 00:06:47,840 Speaker 1: lived in all of our lives, where it is at 72 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:53,880 Speaker 1: man's discretion whether the human race survives. It is man's 73 00:06:53,920 --> 00:06:59,039 Speaker 1: discretion whether the button gets pushed or not. This is 74 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:03,479 Speaker 1: what the trinity explosion looked like, that began that age 75 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:07,760 Speaker 1: seventy eight years ago. And these are the explosions of 76 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:13,840 Speaker 1: the hydrogen based weapons. The followed the superbombs, the most 77 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:20,240 Speaker 1: powerful explosions recorded in all of human history. Explosions that 78 00:07:20,320 --> 00:07:24,960 Speaker 1: have the ability to destroy in a flash and in 79 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:31,840 Speaker 1: an instant all the human civilization has ever created, The 80 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:36,080 Speaker 1: ability to turn the pyramids that have survived for five 81 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:41,120 Speaker 1: thousand years to dust, to disappear, the Colosseum, all of 82 00:07:41,240 --> 00:07:46,960 Speaker 1: man's collective accomplishments, the great art, the great music. Thank 83 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:50,960 Speaker 1: you for listening to my political commentary. If you like 84 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:55,080 Speaker 1: what you heard today, please also consider subscribing to The 85 00:07:55,120 --> 00:08:00,680 Speaker 1: Warning daily newsletter on Substack. Our democracy hangs in the balance. 86 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:05,920 Speaker 1: The twenty twenty four presidential election is the most consequential 87 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:10,400 Speaker 1: in America's history. It's not hyperbole, it's a fact. That 88 00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:13,600 Speaker 1: is why the mission of The Warning with Steve Schmidt 89 00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:16,760 Speaker 1: is to help readers orient to the currents that are 90 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:21,960 Speaker 1: shaping our times and the unseen forces driving politics that 91 00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:26,480 Speaker 1: are very rarely discussed on cable news. Please sign up 92 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:31,880 Speaker 1: at Steve Schmidt st e ve E, S, C, H, M, I, 93 00:08:32,080 --> 00:08:39,679 Speaker 1: d T dot substack dot com again Steve Schmidt dot 94 00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:43,559 Speaker 1: substack dot com, or at the link in the show 95 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:47,800 Speaker 1: notes section below. Thank you to each and every one 96 00:08:47,840 --> 00:08:53,360 Speaker 1: of you for listening and watching mankind in the last 97 00:08:53,400 --> 00:09:00,160 Speaker 1: eighty years has developed the capacity to extinct itself, and 98 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:08,240 Speaker 1: that threat exists it lingers. The people in American life 99 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:14,000 Speaker 1: who are charged with these weapons are not the scientists 100 00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:19,160 Speaker 1: who created them, nor are they the military officers who 101 00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:24,520 Speaker 1: I ordered to do so would launch them. The American 102 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:32,160 Speaker 1: people give the responsibility for life and death to their politicians, 103 00:09:33,559 --> 00:09:37,280 Speaker 1: to the men, and it has been men so far 104 00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:44,240 Speaker 1: who seek the presidency. Those are the people that are 105 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:48,880 Speaker 1: handed the launch codes, the launch codes to launch the 106 00:09:48,920 --> 00:09:56,040 Speaker 1: weapons that have the capacity and every human life and 107 00:09:56,400 --> 00:10:03,600 Speaker 1: all of the achievements of human civilization in a free society, 108 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:09,760 Speaker 1: the people decide who it is that will have that power. 109 00:10:11,400 --> 00:10:15,560 Speaker 1: And who is it that the American people have decided 110 00:10:16,960 --> 00:10:21,960 Speaker 1: in the second decade of the twenty first century that 111 00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:26,800 Speaker 1: should have that power of the gods. They decided in 112 00:10:26,840 --> 00:10:30,320 Speaker 1: their infinite wisdom that it should be Donald John Trump, 113 00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:37,440 Speaker 1: the reality television show host, a queen's hustler, a liar, 114 00:10:38,480 --> 00:10:44,640 Speaker 1: a devian, a man who cannot be trusted, not in 115 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:49,200 Speaker 1: any aspect of his life. He cannot keep his word, 116 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:54,200 Speaker 1: and he cannot tell the truth. And yet he was 117 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:59,800 Speaker 1: made by a slim margin. The commander in chief of 118 00:10:59,840 --> 00:11:04,319 Speaker 1: the most potent military in the history of the world, 119 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:09,120 Speaker 1: and for four long years, during which he told thirty 120 00:11:09,160 --> 00:11:16,559 Speaker 1: five thousand lies. Donald Trump desecrated his oath and divided 121 00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:21,160 Speaker 1: the American people. He pitted them against each other and 122 00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:25,400 Speaker 1: put them at each other's throats. When he lost the 123 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:33,160 Speaker 1: election and was repudiated, and what neutral observers understand is 124 00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:40,120 Speaker 1: the least corrupt, cleanest, and most efficient election in American history, 125 00:11:41,559 --> 00:11:49,080 Speaker 1: he began a crusade of lyon that ended in criminal acts, 126 00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:58,199 Speaker 1: an insurrection against the peaceful transfer of power. His conduct 127 00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:05,640 Speaker 1: wasn't just treacherous, it was treasonous. He was disloyal. He tried, 128 00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:10,920 Speaker 1: for his own sake and his own power, to tear 129 00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:17,680 Speaker 1: down the country, to ruin the greatest experiment in the 130 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:24,560 Speaker 1: history of human civilization about man's capacity to govern themselves 131 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:32,720 Speaker 1: in a society that is free, lawful, and pluralistic. What 132 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:40,320 Speaker 1: a disgrace. But the greater disgrace than Trump's misconduct is 133 00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:49,600 Speaker 1: what happened around Trump. The cowardice, the stickophancy, the accommodation 134 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:55,400 Speaker 1: to the worst person, and the worst cause since the 135 00:12:55,440 --> 00:13:02,680 Speaker 1: American Confederacy by people who decided it was more important 136 00:13:02,720 --> 00:13:06,840 Speaker 1: for them to get ahead than the right thing. And 137 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:12,600 Speaker 1: there is no person who more fully represents this moment 138 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:19,959 Speaker 1: of sycophancy, of indulgence for the worst amongst us than 139 00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:25,040 Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy. He is like a poisonous otter, the rush 140 00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:31,800 Speaker 1: chairman of the Republican Majority, a sycophant, sycophant who will 141 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:37,040 Speaker 1: do anything at any moment for a vote to make 142 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:44,160 Speaker 1: himself in charge. There is nothing that Kevin McCarthy cares 143 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:49,760 Speaker 1: about other than the job he has. He is unfit 144 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:55,520 Speaker 1: at an intellectual level, at a moral level for high 145 00:13:55,559 --> 00:14:01,440 Speaker 1: government office. And yet because of our bron politics, because 146 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:04,839 Speaker 1: of our broken system, there he sis what is it 147 00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:10,920 Speaker 1: that he's decided to do well? He seeks to nullify 148 00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:17,319 Speaker 1: the impeachment votes made against Donald Trump that happened as 149 00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:21,560 Speaker 1: a matter of reality. He seeks to erase them from 150 00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:26,520 Speaker 1: history with an expungement vote that he has no authority 151 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:31,080 Speaker 1: to lead. He seeks to do this to cover up 152 00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:35,280 Speaker 1: the crimes of a man who extorted a foreign nation 153 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:40,720 Speaker 1: under grave threat that today is at war with the 154 00:14:40,760 --> 00:14:46,160 Speaker 1: country that threatened it. How many lives were lost because 155 00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:50,600 Speaker 1: Donald Trump decided to extort Ukraine instead of helping it. 156 00:14:51,920 --> 00:14:57,160 Speaker 1: History will render a horse judgment on this matter, and 157 00:14:57,160 --> 00:15:01,440 Speaker 1: then Donald Trump incited the insurrection and he was impeached 158 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:06,120 Speaker 1: for that. And what Kevin McCarthy wants to do is 159 00:15:06,160 --> 00:15:10,000 Speaker 1: to pretend those things didn't happen while leading an impeachment 160 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:18,240 Speaker 1: against Joe Biden. Again, these are the rancid people, the 161 00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:23,160 Speaker 1: empty souls, the hollow men that the American people want 162 00:15:23,240 --> 00:15:27,720 Speaker 1: to put in the direct line of responsibility for the 163 00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:31,640 Speaker 1: handling of the most potent weapons that have ever been 164 00:15:31,720 --> 00:15:38,560 Speaker 1: conceived at an age where machines can think. It is 165 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:42,080 Speaker 1: an astonishing revelation if it turns out to be true 166 00:15:42,840 --> 00:15:46,040 Speaker 1: that the American people, after nearly two hundred and fifty 167 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:50,760 Speaker 1: years of freedom, would become so profoundly indifferent to their 168 00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:56,560 Speaker 1: liberty and indeed their survival, that they would willingly choose 169 00:15:57,360 --> 00:16:01,960 Speaker 1: the worst people from amongst them out of three hundred 170 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:07,480 Speaker 1: and thirty million lead them, because nobody in the society 171 00:16:07,640 --> 00:16:13,800 Speaker 1: cares enough to maintain the society and to make it better, 172 00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:20,760 Speaker 1: stronger for our descendants, for our children. We indeed have 173 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:25,560 Speaker 1: reached an astonishing moment. We are ignorant of the past, 174 00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:34,800 Speaker 1: numb in the present, and visionless around our future. It's 175 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:38,360 Speaker 1: no way to run a country, but it's the direction 176 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:42,680 Speaker 1: we're headed in because the American people have tolerated it 177 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:47,360 Speaker 1: for too long. There's a concept that we should get 178 00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:52,160 Speaker 1: used to again in America. It's very simple. Freedom is 179 00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:57,960 Speaker 1: just a nonsense word without responsibility and obligation attached to it. 180 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:03,640 Speaker 1: American people should remember that the next time Kevin McCarthy 181 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:08,840 Speaker 1: talks about impeaching President Biden for no reason whatsoever. The 182 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:14,600 Speaker 1: frivolous and small people who lead America's government deserve neither 183 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:20,760 Speaker 1: our respect or affection. They deserve our contempt because they've 184 00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:26,080 Speaker 1: earned it with their smallness, with their dishonesty and their malice. 185 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:32,919 Speaker 1: Whatever Joe Biden's failings, dishonor is not amongst them. The 186 00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:37,320 Speaker 1: trumped up charges leveled at him by Speaker McCarthy, who 187 00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:42,000 Speaker 1: has indulged the greatest era of corruption in American history 188 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:46,480 Speaker 1: and is in fact a part of it, is another 189 00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:52,080 Speaker 1: appalling moment. It's a made up moment, a fiction, one 190 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:56,400 Speaker 1: more chapter in a book of character assassination on behalf 191 00:17:57,280 --> 00:18:02,200 Speaker 1: of the worst president in America in history, who has 192 00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:09,840 Speaker 1: inspired a cold civil war, broken American society, ignited the 193 00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:14,919 Speaker 1: animosity of a country for what purpose, to what end 194 00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:20,919 Speaker 1: other than his ambition. What a sick hour we live in. 195 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:27,080 Speaker 1: Shouldn't it be ended? Isn't it time? Imagine if we 196 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:33,440 Speaker 1: had a vote to do so. Oh we do. Maybe 197 00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:36,520 Speaker 1: we should think about using it in twenty twenty four