1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: It is Wednesday, July twenty third. This is the warning 2 00:00:05,559 --> 00:00:09,800 Speaker 1: Donald Trump is failing. You may not pick that up 3 00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:15,200 Speaker 1: from his reality show. There, surrounded by the press, he's 4 00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:19,439 Speaker 1: able to control his environment. What he demands of his 5 00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:26,520 Speaker 1: sikophants is performance on TV now. Trump has an unusual aesthetic. 6 00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:30,720 Speaker 1: He judges each of his characters on a score suited 7 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:35,040 Speaker 1: for the role they're playing. For example, Tom Homan wouldn't 8 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:39,600 Speaker 1: make it as Press secretary, but he performed beautifully as 9 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:46,440 Speaker 1: the government thug. Christy no sociopathic, completely crazy, but again 10 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:51,680 Speaker 1: fulfills the role. Pam Bondy, It's not that Trump cares 11 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:56,680 Speaker 1: that Pam Bondy did something bad lying to his base about. 12 00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:57,880 Speaker 2: The Epstein story. 13 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:03,120 Speaker 1: It's that for Trump, Pam Bondy did something bad to Trump. 14 00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:09,000 Speaker 1: Pam Bondy compromised MAGA, and that's why Pam Bondi's position 15 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:14,960 Speaker 1: is so precarious. Trump is completely indifferent to the chaos 16 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:21,040 Speaker 1: swirling all around the Defense Department. He appreciates not the 17 00:01:21,080 --> 00:01:24,560 Speaker 1: ability of Pete Hegseth to do the job. He just 18 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:29,840 Speaker 1: appreciates the red whight and blue handkerchief. Somehow, Donald Trump, 19 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:32,480 Speaker 1: because he probably used to watch a lot of b 20 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:38,640 Speaker 1: Movies thinks strangely that the defense minister for the world's 21 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 1: most powerful nation should look like Pete Hegseth. 22 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:44,520 Speaker 2: Somehow, Robert Kennedy. 23 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:50,240 Speaker 1: Has unleashed a vaccine skepticism that will kill a great 24 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:54,840 Speaker 1: many people. And when you think about the legacy of 25 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:58,200 Speaker 1: Robert Kennedy, and you think about the legacy of Marco 26 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:02,360 Speaker 1: Rubio's father, the bartend who came to the United States 27 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:06,120 Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty six, only to have a son who 28 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:11,280 Speaker 1: would have gladly carried around Fidel Castro's briefcase, they are 29 00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:15,800 Speaker 1: part of an administration that is burning food aid rather 30 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:21,440 Speaker 1: than disseminated. They're burning food aid that's already been paid for, 31 00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:25,560 Speaker 1: the money's been appropriated, rather than distributed. 32 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:28,640 Speaker 3: We just made one of the greatest geopolitical mistakes in 33 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:33,120 Speaker 3: my lifetime in the last several weeks by essentially abolishing USAID. 34 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:36,720 Speaker 3: And I don't expect either of you to answer questions 35 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:42,680 Speaker 3: directly about that because it could jeopardize your your appointment. 36 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:47,440 Speaker 3: But there's just no question. The term soft power is 37 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:51,040 Speaker 3: kind of unfortunate because the word the emphasis is on soft, 38 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:54,240 Speaker 3: but it's power. And as both of you have testified, 39 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:59,960 Speaker 3: communications is important, relationships with the country's stabilization anti terrors, 40 00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:06,560 Speaker 3: developing good relationships, the PEPFAR program, the malaria program, education programs, 41 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:12,840 Speaker 3: democracy promotion programs are essentially are essential to our ability 42 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:17,720 Speaker 3: to compete with the Chinese and the Russians in the 43 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:23,000 Speaker 3: African continent. And talking to some friends who have been 44 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:26,480 Speaker 3: deployed there, their view was that we just made an 45 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:30,040 Speaker 3: enormous gift, particularly to the Chinese. 46 00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:32,600 Speaker 1: By the time we get to the end of the 47 00:03:32,639 --> 00:03:37,200 Speaker 1: Trump presidency, across the Earth, there would be fourteen million 48 00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:41,800 Speaker 1: fewer human beings alive than otherwise would have been because 49 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:44,960 Speaker 1: of the embrace of cruelty by the government of the 50 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:50,240 Speaker 1: United States, by the Trump regime, which has suspended American aid. 51 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:54,320 Speaker 1: Those boxes marked with the American flag and American food 52 00:03:54,440 --> 00:04:00,240 Speaker 1: for the poorest people in the world, fourteen million human lives. 53 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:03,520 Speaker 1: The cost of Donald Trump. He said he would make 54 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:07,240 Speaker 1: the war stop on day one. No wars have stopped. 55 00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:10,680 Speaker 1: He said he obliterated the Iranian nuclear program. 56 00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:14,800 Speaker 2: He did not obliterate the Iranian nuclear program. He said 57 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:16,120 Speaker 2: the economy would be. 58 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:21,280 Speaker 1: Great prices, a rising price of milk, price of eggs, everything, 59 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:26,039 Speaker 1: the cost it's going up home sales, they're going down, 60 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:30,359 Speaker 1: or they're just completely stagnant. When you look at the 61 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:35,599 Speaker 1: Trump mouthpieces regarding the Epstein matter, they're lost and they're 62 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:40,440 Speaker 1: nervous and they're afraid. Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump are 63 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:45,000 Speaker 1: at war, and newscorps is at war with itself, Fox 64 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:47,640 Speaker 1: News at war with the Wall Street Journal. 65 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:48,520 Speaker 2: Let's watch. 66 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:53,320 Speaker 4: And I think the other problem too, is that newspapers 67 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:56,240 Speaker 4: like the Wall Street Journal are not used to a 68 00:04:56,320 --> 00:05:01,600 Speaker 4: high functioning executive president. They are used to perhaps President Biden, 69 00:05:02,440 --> 00:05:07,039 Speaker 4: perhaps President Obama, who was not as economically sophisticated as 70 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:12,240 Speaker 4: President Trump. President Trump solicits a whole range of opinions 71 00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:15,960 Speaker 4: and then makes a decision. So he takes a lot 72 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:19,080 Speaker 4: of inputs, and at the end of the day, it's 73 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:23,080 Speaker 4: his decision, just as it was his decision on Iran. 74 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:27,400 Speaker 4: And look at the tremendous success there. Look at the 75 00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:31,359 Speaker 4: tremendous success at the border, and that is what a 76 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:33,200 Speaker 4: great executive looks like. 77 00:05:34,279 --> 00:05:38,000 Speaker 1: This is an age of incoherence. It's an age of 78 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:42,159 Speaker 1: deep malice and insanity. The question, if we had asked 79 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:45,120 Speaker 1: it forty years ago, what would have happened if there 80 00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:49,400 Speaker 1: was a technology that could instantly connect everyone, everywhere, all 81 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:52,320 Speaker 1: at once, with all the information in the world. 82 00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:54,680 Speaker 2: Would it be a good thing? Would it be a 83 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:55,240 Speaker 2: bad thing? 84 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: And it turns out for our democracy, for the Republic, 85 00:05:59,839 --> 00:06:04,599 Speaker 1: it wasn't a great thing, not because the technology isn't impressive, 86 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:10,320 Speaker 1: but because people are easily manipulated, and manipulated they have 87 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:12,160 Speaker 1: been by the algorithm. 88 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:13,800 Speaker 2: And so the. 89 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:18,920 Speaker 1: Fundamental issue as we head into twenty twenty six for Democrats, 90 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:22,760 Speaker 1: it's not about a legislative agenda. It's about a four 91 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:28,919 Speaker 1: letter word stop. Stop. The election is about putting a 92 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:32,600 Speaker 1: check on Donald Trump. Then the election of twenty twenty 93 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:36,960 Speaker 1: eight must be about restraining power. The power of the president, 94 00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:40,960 Speaker 1: the power of the alligarchs, power of the biggest companies, 95 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:46,560 Speaker 1: the power of the richest lobbyists, the biggest agricultural businesses. Everywhere, 96 00:06:46,920 --> 00:06:51,080 Speaker 1: there isn't a cruel power that is contrary to the 97 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:55,600 Speaker 1: interests of the American people and the stability of the Republic. 98 00:06:55,960 --> 00:06:59,240 Speaker 1: We have elections to set these things right, and it's 99 00:06:59,279 --> 00:07:03,680 Speaker 1: important for the Democratic leaders to talk about the things 100 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:05,600 Speaker 1: that the elections are about. 101 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:06,360 Speaker 2: A lot of. 102 00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:11,720 Speaker 1: Democrats have taken to using the latest buzzword affordability, No 103 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:16,200 Speaker 1: one uses that word in America, no body. It's an 104 00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:19,480 Speaker 1: out of touch party at a moment when it needs 105 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:23,640 Speaker 1: to be deeply in touch with the grass beneath its 106 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:27,119 Speaker 1: feet and beneath the feet of the American people. Soon 107 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:31,360 Speaker 1: we'll be a labor day not long after that. One 108 00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:34,560 Speaker 1: year to go until the midterms. What Donald Trump is 109 00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: doing in the country is awful, but the American people 110 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:41,400 Speaker 1: chose it, not by a majority, but with enough forty 111 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:44,400 Speaker 1: nine and a half percent. Don't let anyone ever tell 112 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:47,960 Speaker 1: you that elections don't matter, and your vote doesn't either. 113 00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:49,920 Speaker 2: It matters a great deal. 114 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:54,400 Speaker 1: And the evidence of that is the insanity swirling all 115 00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:55,520 Speaker 1: around us. 116 00:07:56,200 --> 00:08:00,800 Speaker 2: This is the morning. I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning. 117 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:03,800 Speaker 1: I invite you to join this community where I promise 118 00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:07,920 Speaker 1: to be honest, blunt and direct about what is happening 119 00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:12,480 Speaker 1: in this country. America is in crisis. Follow and subscribe 120 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:14,440 Speaker 1: to this channel and on substack. 121 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:15,040 Speaker 2: Thank you.