Speaker 1: What does reform and renewal for the country mean to you.
Speaker 2: I think it means not just acting like none of
Speaker 2: this happened and moving forward. I think one of the
Speaker 2: greatest mistakes of the Biden administration was appointing Merrick Garland.
Speaker 2: I think we missed an opportunity to actually hold accountable
Speaker 2: those who committed crimes, including a violent insurrection that tried
Speaker 2: to overturn a democratic election. I don't think we can
Speaker 2: afford to forget and move on. I think we have
Speaker 2: to contend with what we've gone through here in this
Speaker 2: world that you're talking about, Steve. We've survived. We've built
Speaker 2: a pro democracy movement that prevented a permanent authoritarian rule
Speaker 2: in this country. That's incredible. We should celebrate what we've
Speaker 2: accomplished as a country, and then we should implement the
Speaker 2: kinds of reforms that are necessary to prevent that from
Speaker 2: happening again anytime in the near future. We should be
Speaker 2: thinking of a policy agenda into our twenty twenty nine
Speaker 2: the way we would have thought of one after World
Speaker 2: War two or after the Civil War. We've gone through
Speaker 2: some shit together, We've survived. How do we build for
Speaker 2: the new era, and so what I don't want to
Speaker 2: see are warned over policy proposals from twenty sixteen or
Speaker 2: twenty twelve and just moving on in that way. But
Speaker 2: if I got to be honest, Steve, my head's not
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty nine.
Speaker 1: Right now.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to live to fight another day. I'm looking
Speaker 2: at how do we win this shutdown fight right now?
Speaker 2: How do we win the elections in California and Virginia
Speaker 2: and New Jersey and Pennsylvania three weeks from now, and
Speaker 2: then how do we win a primary season in the
Speaker 2: Democratic Party That should be about what is that party
Speaker 2: going to be fighting for when they reteak power in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six at the end of the year. And
Speaker 2: that should be a party that is in the fight
Speaker 2: back faction of the party and not the rollover in
Speaker 2: play dead faction at the party.
Speaker 1: So again, I can't stress how impooring I think that
Speaker 1: these protests are this weekend. I can't stress how much
Speaker 1: I admired you for the leadership that you've exhibited in
Speaker 1: this moment. I mean it, You're a You're a great
Speaker 1: American patriot, and I have a question for you that
Speaker 1: that I think we got to put on the table
Speaker 1: to talk about because as you, as you lay out
Speaker 1: everything is everything that you have said, I'm I'm a
Speaker 1: complete violent agreement agreement on I look ahead and I
Speaker 1: see you, I see a young guy, and I read
Speaker 1: the story in Politico about your analogue, which is which
Speaker 1: is all these young Republicans in the I love Hitler,
Speaker 1: Maggot crowd, and I see this disease. I see this
Speaker 1: cancer right that's forming. Jade Vance is asked to respond
Speaker 1: to all of these Republicans. They're all in the picture
Speaker 1: back in. Any national leader with any moral foundation should
Speaker 1: dress that in a very serious way, and of course
Speaker 1: Jadie Vance is not that, so he doesn't. And he
Speaker 1: points a finger at the Democratic nominee for Attorney General
Speaker 1: in Virginia, who is running in a moment when the
Speaker 1: rule of law is under siege and assault. We have
Speaker 1: Banana Republican prosecutions take a place, including from Virginia, and
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party has nominated someone that has put out
Speaker 1: all of these emails, these tags that have come out
Speaker 1: that are basically I want to shoot the Republican speaker
Speaker 1: in the head, I want to kill his I want
Speaker 1: to kill his kids, and YadA, YadA, YadA, YadA, And
Speaker 1: to me, that person, this is an easy decision in
Speaker 1: the pro democracy fight. Take his ass up, boom, over
Speaker 1: the rail into the ocean. I don't want to defend him.
Speaker 1: I have no investment in that person. I think he's
Speaker 1: a whack job that is an agent of a terrible cause.
Speaker 1: In the end, he is a booster rocket for MAGA
Speaker 1: and there should be zero tolerance for him on our side.
Speaker 1: And what I would put to you is you're a
Speaker 1: leader of the American opposition, not a leader in the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party, And so how do you process all of
Speaker 1: this as a leader in the American opposition that obviously
Speaker 1: in the two party system, the Democrats are guys so
Speaker 1: to speak, if we're opposed to this, But at the
Speaker 1: same time, it's also the institution the lost to Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: And I know for my part, you know, as a
Speaker 1: person who's involved in one of that cluster of groups,
Speaker 1: I am completely against signing up for another pickets charge
Speaker 1: or led by the saint people who've lost two out
Speaker 1: of the last three elections to the Donald Trump. But
Speaker 1: how do you factor all of that into this? As
Speaker 1: every Democratic leader is looking at these protests this weekend
Speaker 1: and saying, right, if they're Chuck Schumer, Oh this is
Speaker 1: for me. No, it's not. It's about something else. And
Speaker 1: so there's a lot of people trying to get on
Speaker 1: to the south right. But what are you saying, how
Speaker 1: do you see all that?
Speaker 2: Well, I think you're exactly right that this is not
Speaker 2: a Democratic Party movement. Indivisible as an organization has never
Speaker 2: been an arm of the Democratic Party. And in March,
Speaker 2: after Trump, or after Trump successfully bullied Schumer into surrendering
Speaker 2: on the previous Republican funding bill, we held an emergency
Speaker 2: meeting of thirteen hundred Indivisible leaders from around the country.
Speaker 2: Ninety two percent of them voted for US to call
Speaker 2: for Chuck Schumer to step down from leadership because he
Speaker 2: had frittered away what little leverage he had up until
Speaker 2: this point. Now, the six months later, we have a
Speaker 2: cee our bill again. I think the reason why you
Speaker 2: see Schumer and the other Democrats fighting now is because
Speaker 2: in the intervening months since that point, they have been
Speaker 2: absolutely demolished by rank and file, THEMS and grassroots members.
Speaker 2: This isn't ideological, This isn't the left versus the center,
Speaker 2: or the left versus the conservatis. This is normal everyday
Speaker 2: Democrats who said, what the hell, why aren't you using
Speaker 2: your leverage? And they are being pushed, and they're showing
Speaker 2: up on Hands Off in April, and they're showing up
Speaker 2: on No Kings in June, and they're showing up in
Speaker 2: bigger numbers in No Kings two in a few days,
Speaker 2: and Democrats are scared that they're going to be tossed
Speaker 2: out unless they respond in some way. I think what
Speaker 2: we need to do is be really hard on our
Speaker 2: leaders and not allow them to get away with just
Speaker 2: performative gestures. And this is something we saw shortly after
Speaker 2: the hands off protests and the no Kings protests originally
Speaker 2: is a lot of dims who were in the rollover
Speaker 2: and play dead category said, oh my gosh, the rank
Speaker 2: and file are really pissed off right now. We should
Speaker 2: send some strongly worded letters to show that we're on
Speaker 2: the same side. We should give some inspiring speeches. We
Speaker 2: should cuss more. There should be more cursing to demonstrate
Speaker 2: how pissed off we are. I think there was an
Speaker 2: actual memo that went around that commits them to do that,
Speaker 2: and I'm not going to lie. I like a good speech.
Speaker 2: I like a good rant with some cursing about what
Speaker 2: Trump is doing. I think that's a step in the
Speaker 2: right direction. That's better than condescending dismissal. But what we're
Speaker 2: looking for is a party that fights back and a
Speaker 2: party that's serious about standing up for democratic values. So
Speaker 2: I think it is easy to call that out. Is
Speaker 2: easy for me to sit here and say this Democratic
Speaker 2: leader failed, that Democratic leader failed. I want the party
Speaker 2: to do X. Why aren't they doing it? Why are
Speaker 2: they disappointing me so much? But the Democratic Party is
Speaker 2: what we make of it. It is what we demand.
Speaker 2: We get the party that we demand, and I think
Speaker 2: we should take advantage of the opportunity in front of
Speaker 2: us to demand a party that actually fights back and
Speaker 2: represents a serious opposition to authoritarianism in this country. The
Speaker 2: most immediate opportunity I see for that is the primary
Speaker 2: season that's coming now. We are going to have primaries
Speaker 2: for Congress, for the Senate, for state legislatures all over
Speaker 2: the country, and we can accept the same old leadership
Speaker 2: that we've had, or we can go and withhold our
Speaker 2: money and our votes and our attention from those who
Speaker 2: are part of the old field version of this party.
Speaker 2: I think I'm happy to talk about that. We're not
Speaker 2: involved at the state race in Virginia, the lieutenant governor's race.
Speaker 2: I think it's atrocious what he did. I think it's
Speaker 2: extremely damaging. And we're also in the general election against
Speaker 2: the Fascist Party, so I would like to see some
Speaker 2: serious contrition. I would like to see him clean it
Speaker 2: up as much as possible. And also, given limited capacity
Speaker 2: that we have, I'm putting a lot more energy into
Speaker 2: Proposition fifty in California to fight back against Jerry Mannery,
Speaker 2: and put a lot more energy in the three Pennsylvania
Speaker 2: Supreme Court races, which could be determinative on whether we
Speaker 2: have free and fair elections in twenty six and twenty eight.
Speaker 2: And I'm putting more energy in the New Jersey governor's
Speaker 2: race in the Virginia's governor's race.
Speaker 3: I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning. I invite you
Speaker 3: to join this community where I promise to be honest,
Speaker 3: blunt and direct about what is happening in this country.
Speaker 3: America is in crisis. Follow and subscribe to this channel
Speaker 3: and on substack. Thank you