1 00:00:03,680 --> 00:00:06,279 Speaker 1: Can you hear that sound? Listen carefully. 2 00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:10,400 Speaker 2: It's the sound of Ronde Santus's ambitions and his nasty 3 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:14,760 Speaker 2: campaign for president of the United States imploding. It's collapsing, 4 00:00:15,120 --> 00:00:18,360 Speaker 2: and it's a fun thing to watch, isn't it. Ronda 5 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:24,160 Speaker 2: Santis was very narrowly elected against the Democratic opponent, who, 6 00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:28,520 Speaker 2: shortly after the election was found and photographed passed out 7 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:31,920 Speaker 2: after a night of smoking crack. So when we look 8 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:36,640 Speaker 2: at Ronda Santus's political career, we should all understand in 9 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:41,280 Speaker 2: politics it's as important to be lucky sometimes as it 10 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:45,120 Speaker 2: is to be good, and Ronda Santis has been very, 11 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:47,960 Speaker 2: very lucky. When he ran for Florida governor in the 12 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,519 Speaker 2: Republican primary, what was his campaign about? 13 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 1: He ran as a sycophan. 14 00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:58,000 Speaker 2: Literally, he ran as the biggest Trump ass kisser in 15 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:02,320 Speaker 2: the field. He made clear that he would be loyal 16 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:08,080 Speaker 2: for life or until death do them part. Now, DeSantis 17 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:11,679 Speaker 2: didn't hold up his part of the bargain, but he's 18 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:15,759 Speaker 2: running for president and collapsing quickly. What type of governor 19 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:20,760 Speaker 2: has ron de Santis been? What type of person has 20 00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:24,480 Speaker 2: he tried to lift people up, bring them together? 21 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:27,320 Speaker 1: Has he tried to make his state. 22 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:33,320 Speaker 2: More prosperous, more friendly, to instill it with more opportunity 23 00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:34,759 Speaker 2: for its people. 24 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:36,920 Speaker 1: He chose to do none of those things. 25 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:41,360 Speaker 2: Instead, what Rond de Santis did was inside a culture war, 26 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:46,880 Speaker 2: pitting one group against another, adding on to the fire 27 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:53,000 Speaker 2: that Trump started one log at a time, stoking division, animosity, 28 00:01:53,640 --> 00:02:00,000 Speaker 2: and cruelty. Ron DeSantis has departed completely from the content 29 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:04,800 Speaker 2: a steps of free market economics. DeSantis believes in a 30 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:10,320 Speaker 2: doctrine of punishment and revenge. Like his mentor Trump, he 31 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:14,680 Speaker 2: wants to decide what books people can read, what thoughts 32 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:19,200 Speaker 2: they can have, what they can learn, what they can think, 33 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:24,679 Speaker 2: what they can believe in. Any deviation from what Ron 34 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:28,480 Speaker 2: de Santis believes will bring the power and the full 35 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:32,760 Speaker 2: weight of government down on the heads of the apostles. 36 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 2: The point of Ron de santiss fight with Walt Disney 37 00:02:36,639 --> 00:02:40,079 Speaker 2: is this. If he could do that bullshit to Disney, 38 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:43,960 Speaker 2: he can do it to you and to anybody. 39 00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:45,800 Speaker 1: That's the point. 40 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 2: If you stray from the party line, you can expect punishment, imprisonment. 41 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:56,440 Speaker 2: Does that sound like liberty to you? Does that sound 42 00:02:56,520 --> 00:03:02,200 Speaker 2: like freedom? What that sounds like is what it actually is. 43 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:09,640 Speaker 2: It's fascism and Ron Santis is an American practitioner. Amongst 44 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:15,400 Speaker 2: the many perversions of Ron De Santis's governorship, there is 45 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:19,760 Speaker 2: one that stands out. It is his embrace of a 46 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:26,520 Speaker 2: doctrine of racial amnesia, of pretend of a deluded fantasy 47 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:33,440 Speaker 2: that holds black Americans were lucky to be enslaved, they 48 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:39,680 Speaker 2: got skills from the experience. The Transatlantic slave trade as 49 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:46,120 Speaker 2: a historical artifact is something we live with to this day. 50 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:48,480 Speaker 1: The enslavement and. 51 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:52,800 Speaker 2: The brutality of the captured peoples from Africa who were 52 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 2: brought to the North American continent and died by the 53 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:08,560 Speaker 2: tens of thousands at sea and on land, who were beaten, abused, whipped, chained, scalded, abused, 54 00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:15,280 Speaker 2: treated like animals. These human beings are the legacy of 55 00:04:15,320 --> 00:04:22,360 Speaker 2: the Atlantic slave trade. The abominations of their treatment stain 56 00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:29,279 Speaker 2: the human legacy, not just the American one. Slavery wasn't 57 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:33,800 Speaker 2: born in the United States, but it came here and 58 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:37,800 Speaker 2: it shaped the country. We can find the legacy of 59 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:43,720 Speaker 2: slavery in our founding documents, where three fifths is how 60 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:48,159 Speaker 2: a black was counted against a white for purposes of 61 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:52,120 Speaker 2: figuring out the census of the country. Thank you for 62 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:55,839 Speaker 2: listening to my political commentary. If you like what you 63 00:04:55,920 --> 00:05:01,200 Speaker 2: heard today, please also consider subscribing to The Warning daily 64 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:06,080 Speaker 2: newsletter on Substack. Our democracy hangs in the balance. The 65 00:05:06,200 --> 00:05:10,560 Speaker 2: twenty twenty four presidential election is the most consequential in 66 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:15,200 Speaker 2: America's history. It's not hyperbole, it's a fact. That is 67 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:18,479 Speaker 2: why the mission of The Warning with Steve Schmidt is 68 00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:21,760 Speaker 2: to help readers orient to the currents that are shaping 69 00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:26,760 Speaker 2: our times and the unseen forces driving politics that are 70 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:31,440 Speaker 2: very rarely discussed on cable news. Please sign up at 71 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:36,440 Speaker 2: Steve Schmidt st e ve E, S, C, H, M, I, 72 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:44,279 Speaker 2: D T dot substack dot com again Steve Schmidt dot 73 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 2: substack dot com, or at the link in the show 74 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:52,360 Speaker 2: notes section below. Thank you to each and every one 75 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:57,000 Speaker 2: of you for listening and watching over and over again. 76 00:05:57,680 --> 00:06:02,320 Speaker 2: Ron DeSantis has tried to cover up this shame. He's 77 00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:06,640 Speaker 2: tried to voice a version of history that is untrue. 78 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:14,320 Speaker 2: That's a lie, that's an ideological Deceit no different than 79 00:06:14,320 --> 00:06:18,880 Speaker 2: what the Soviets did, or what Mao did or what 80 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:26,320 Speaker 2: Adolph Hitler did. It's propaganda. It obscures the truth. Lax 81 00:06:26,880 --> 00:06:30,920 Speaker 2: did not benefit from slavery in the United States. They 82 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:34,799 Speaker 2: were murdered by it. Their families were separated and broken 83 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:38,719 Speaker 2: by it. They were tortured by it. They were whipped, 84 00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:45,760 Speaker 2: they were beaten. This legacy is America's great moral steam. 85 00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:51,640 Speaker 2: It is the burden that the country must overcome to 86 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:55,920 Speaker 2: reach its potential and its promise. There are some who 87 00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:00,640 Speaker 2: say that what John Lewis and Martin Luther King accomplished 88 00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:04,640 Speaker 2: in the nineteen sixties was the birth of the Third 89 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:10,760 Speaker 2: American Republic, a republic that exists under a fifty star flag. 90 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:14,360 Speaker 2: And it's that fifty star flag which is the only 91 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:17,400 Speaker 2: flag in all the long history of the United States 92 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:22,679 Speaker 2: that stands for freedom, liberty, and equality under the law 93 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:26,600 Speaker 2: for all of the people. It wasn't true when there 94 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:30,560 Speaker 2: were forty eight stars. That was Jim Crow America. And 95 00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:33,880 Speaker 2: it wasn't true when there were thirteen stars, because there 96 00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:37,520 Speaker 2: were slavery in America. The birth of the Second American 97 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:42,040 Speaker 2: Republic is linked to the defeat of the Evil Confederacy. 98 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:46,600 Speaker 2: At the end of the American Civil War, there were 99 00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:50,160 Speaker 2: thirty four million people who lived in the United States. 100 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:54,600 Speaker 2: Then there were thirty four states that would grow to 101 00:07:54,720 --> 00:07:58,160 Speaker 2: thirty six during the course of the war, the country 102 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:03,080 Speaker 2: was spreading west. It had reached the Pacific Ocean. Thirty 103 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:07,880 Speaker 2: four million people, twenty five million in the north, nine 104 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:13,640 Speaker 2: million in the South, five million white, four million black slaves. 105 00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:19,679 Speaker 2: That war, in a nation of thirty four million, where 106 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 2: three million men were under arms, killed six hundred thousand people, 107 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:29,400 Speaker 2: making it per capita, one of the bloodiest wars in 108 00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:35,679 Speaker 2: all of history. It was a war of emancipation, and 109 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:41,720 Speaker 2: when it ended, blacks were free in America, but not 110 00:08:41,880 --> 00:08:48,120 Speaker 2: equal and badly treated. The short term victory and gains 111 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:53,680 Speaker 2: made for blacks in the period of reconstruction faded into 112 00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:58,960 Speaker 2: a long, dark, evil night of Jim Crow that would 113 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:04,439 Speaker 2: not lift until the nineteen sixties. I'm fifty two years old, 114 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:10,640 Speaker 2: born in nineteen seventy five. Short years before I was born, 115 00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:18,160 Speaker 2: Blacks in America could not vote, were denied basic civil rights, 116 00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:22,720 Speaker 2: lived in an apartheid society in the South. This is 117 00:09:22,760 --> 00:09:28,840 Speaker 2: an ancient history. This is current history, and we must 118 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:33,560 Speaker 2: learn from it. The job of this generation of Americans 119 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:37,760 Speaker 2: is not to sit in judgment of our ancestors, our parents, 120 00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:42,360 Speaker 2: and our grandparents. It is to perfect the union that 121 00:09:42,440 --> 00:09:47,480 Speaker 2: they left us. And that union was stronger in nineteen 122 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:52,000 Speaker 2: seventy as it was in nineteen forty five, as it 123 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:56,880 Speaker 2: was in eighteen sixty five, as it was for every 124 00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:59,160 Speaker 2: generation since the beginning. 125 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:01,520 Speaker 1: Who made it a little bit better. 126 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:07,400 Speaker 2: The fault of our ancestors to perfect the country does 127 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:12,000 Speaker 2: not excuse us of our duty, our obligations, and our 128 00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:17,160 Speaker 2: responsibilities to meet the challenges of our era in perfecting 129 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:21,240 Speaker 2: the American Union. What Rondas Santus is doing in Florida 130 00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:27,720 Speaker 2: isn't just wrong, it's evil. He is trying to erase 131 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:33,280 Speaker 2: some of the most important lessons, lessons that have been 132 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:43,079 Speaker 2: earned through sacrifice, blood, cruelty, of unfathomable dimensions. He seeks 133 00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:47,440 Speaker 2: to whitewash it, erase it from history. He seeks to 134 00:10:47,640 --> 00:10:53,920 Speaker 2: disney fi American history, to wipe it clean of its ugliness, 135 00:10:54,760 --> 00:10:59,320 Speaker 2: of its hatreds. But we need to understand these things 136 00:10:59,440 --> 00:11:03,240 Speaker 2: lest we repeat them, lest we be unable to move 137 00:11:03,280 --> 00:11:08,040 Speaker 2: on from them towards the City on the Shining Hill 138 00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:13,679 Speaker 2: prophecy by John Kennedy, by John Winthrop, by Ronald Dragon. 139 00:11:15,520 --> 00:11:21,840 Speaker 1: The American experiment is ongoing. It is a continuation of 140 00:11:21,920 --> 00:11:24,480 Speaker 1: an idea and its fulfillment. 141 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:30,240 Speaker 2: The country is imperfect because it has never lived up 142 00:11:30,360 --> 00:11:36,720 Speaker 2: fully to its high ideals and ideas. The way to 143 00:11:36,840 --> 00:11:40,360 Speaker 2: make sure that it never can and it never does 144 00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:46,439 Speaker 2: is by erasing our history from the forthcoming rising generations 145 00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:47,360 Speaker 2: of Americans. 146 00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:53,079 Speaker 1: Who must know that there was slavery in America. They 147 00:11:53,160 --> 00:11:56,360 Speaker 1: must know that there was apartheid in America. 148 00:11:57,320 --> 00:12:00,560 Speaker 2: They must know these things because they they must know 149 00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:05,720 Speaker 2: the story about how they were overcome the bravery and 150 00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:10,640 Speaker 2: the nonviolence of the people who did it. They must 151 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:15,640 Speaker 2: know the stories of their courage, their grace, their wisdom. 152 00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:21,760 Speaker 2: And they must know the smallness of the ideologies of 153 00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:26,920 Speaker 2: hatred that fueled all of it. They must know these 154 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:31,200 Speaker 2: things so when it comes their turn to lead, it 155 00:12:31,360 --> 00:12:37,080 Speaker 2: can be their turn to discard this evil forever on 156 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:41,400 Speaker 2: the ash heap of history. Because thus far our generation 157 00:12:41,920 --> 00:12:46,440 Speaker 2: and our parents' generations have been unable to reach that 158 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:54,040 Speaker 2: important milestone. That means there is opportunity, opportunity for the 159 00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:58,640 Speaker 2: next generation and the one after that to take up 160 00:12:58,679 --> 00:13:03,360 Speaker 2: the title of the great generation, because the greatest generation 161 00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:08,000 Speaker 2: of Americans will be the Americans who can finally, at 162 00:13:08,160 --> 00:13:13,439 Speaker 2: long last live our ideals that we are all equal, 163 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:19,360 Speaker 2: created so by a creator beyond our power, to comprehend 164 00:13:20,559 --> 00:13:25,760 Speaker 2: and that he or she or whatever is responsible forgiving 165 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:30,599 Speaker 2: us life and liberty so that we may pursue happiness. 166 00:13:30,920 --> 00:13:34,560 Speaker 2: This is beyond the remit of government. This is beyond 167 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:39,439 Speaker 2: the power of the politician and man. This is elemental 168 00:13:40,240 --> 00:13:45,040 Speaker 2: to understanding the United States, which Ron DeSantis most certainly 169 00:13:45,080 --> 00:13:51,240 Speaker 2: does not. What's happening in Florida in the schools is atrocious, 170 00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:59,280 Speaker 2: it's debased. It should be stopped. But even if it isn't, 171 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:04,360 Speaker 2: Ronde de Santis and his petty band of Florida thugs 172 00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:10,240 Speaker 2: will not be able to cover up American history because 173 00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:15,960 Speaker 2: the truth matters in twenty twenty three, and the truth 174 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:23,080 Speaker 2: is America isn't the happy, free place of Ronde Santis's imagination. 175 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:28,080 Speaker 2: It's a place where freedoms have come hard, and much 176 00:14:28,120 --> 00:14:32,160 Speaker 2: harder for some groups than others. It's a story about 177 00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:39,920 Speaker 2: sacrifice encourage. That's the American story. It's too bad Ronde 178 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:42,560 Speaker 2: Santis doesn't want to share it with your children.