1 00:00:00,600 --> 00:00:04,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to another edition of the Schmidt Storm. You have questions, 2 00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:09,239 Speaker 1: I got answers. Let's get going. The question is why 3 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:12,560 Speaker 1: won't jd Vance and Donald Trump stop with the lies 4 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:17,000 Speaker 1: about Springfield because it's been proven false. That's the point. 5 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:20,119 Speaker 1: Donald Trump has been reported to have kept books of 6 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:23,439 Speaker 1: Adolf Hitler's speeches on the side of his desk and 7 00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:27,520 Speaker 1: had a long fascination with the German Nazi furor. And 8 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:29,680 Speaker 1: this all came from his ex wife. One of the 9 00:00:29,720 --> 00:00:33,760 Speaker 1: things that Trump has learned from fascist history is the 10 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:37,519 Speaker 1: power of the lie, and a lot of MAGA officials 11 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:40,600 Speaker 1: have talked about the fact that the bigger the lie, 12 00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:43,760 Speaker 1: the more believable it is. Hitler was the first person 13 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:46,800 Speaker 1: to talk about that. Goebbels has talked about that. So 14 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:52,400 Speaker 1: the lie, no matter how untrue, the crazier it is 15 00:00:52,479 --> 00:00:57,120 Speaker 1: by some physics involved in lying makes it more believable. Now, 16 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:00,480 Speaker 1: I want to explain the political strategy. I'm sure you're 17 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:02,880 Speaker 1: familiar with the game of tug of war, two sides, 18 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:06,000 Speaker 1: one rope, you have to pull the other side over. Now, 19 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:11,160 Speaker 1: imagine doing that game but playing it on floating swim platforms. 20 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:14,640 Speaker 1: What Donald Trump is trying to do is pull the 21 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:18,560 Speaker 1: Harris team into the water. It doesn't matter that the 22 00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:22,480 Speaker 1: Harris team is winning. It doesn't matter that they're pulling 23 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:25,319 Speaker 1: the rope towards them if they lose their balance and 24 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:29,320 Speaker 1: go into the shark confested water, which is immigration the 25 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:34,720 Speaker 1: southern border and the chaos there has dropped immensely, which 26 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:37,920 Speaker 1: in part explains why Donald Trump is talking about Haitians 27 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:43,080 Speaker 1: not Mexicans. But every time the issue is raised, underneath it, 28 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:47,720 Speaker 1: there's a debate about immigration, and that immigration debate, no 29 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:52,400 Speaker 1: matter how ransomly entered into, is something that Trump Advanced 30 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:57,040 Speaker 1: think favors them, which explains why jd. Vance says, well, 31 00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:59,280 Speaker 1: it's okay for me to make this up so we 32 00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: can bring it to it so the voter who cares 33 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:07,440 Speaker 1: about immigration may be immunized to the lie and the sensationalism, 34 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:10,240 Speaker 1: dismiss it and say, oh, that's just Trump being Trump. 35 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:12,440 Speaker 1: But I don't know. I mean, it could be happening 36 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:16,440 Speaker 1: somewhere right and we should understand. And I've written about 37 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:19,480 Speaker 1: this and I've talked about this all week. The Vice 38 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:24,360 Speaker 1: president's reaction during the debate to this was overwhelmingly the 39 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:28,800 Speaker 1: reaction that most normal people had to the absurdity of 40 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:32,640 Speaker 1: it all, but stepping back from the bluster, the shock, 41 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: the buffoonery of Trump, this is a vicious, racist lie 42 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:42,920 Speaker 1: that's as vicious as anything that ever came out of 43 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:46,240 Speaker 1: the mouth of a Goebbels or a Striker. It is 44 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:51,800 Speaker 1: appalling to the exponent infinity, and it's created real danger, 45 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:54,560 Speaker 1: and it is one of the lowest and most appalling 46 00:02:54,639 --> 00:02:58,519 Speaker 1: moments of the entire maggat Trump era, which always finds 47 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:01,560 Speaker 1: a way to borrow down a little deeper. The question 48 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: is what's the stake for the country with another government 49 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:07,600 Speaker 1: shut down looming. Well, let's talk about the politics of it. 50 00:03:07,639 --> 00:03:09,840 Speaker 1: Because we're forty six days from the election. It will 51 00:03:09,919 --> 00:03:13,160 Speaker 1: hurt the Republicans. So, by all means, if they want 52 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:17,440 Speaker 1: to continue the pattern which has gone on for most 53 00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 1: of my adult life of every quarter six months threatening 54 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:23,320 Speaker 1: to shut down the government, by all means do it. 55 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:27,480 Speaker 1: Everything they do that demonstrates their unfitness for responsibility is 56 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:30,519 Speaker 1: a good thing in this moment. Politically, we don't want 57 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:33,280 Speaker 1: to see Kamala Harris have a lonely victory. It would 58 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:35,640 Speaker 1: be good to have a speaker, Jeffreys. It would be 59 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:38,360 Speaker 1: good to have a Senate majority leader, though it shouldn't 60 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:41,880 Speaker 1: be Chuck Schumer. The Vice President doesn't need to be 61 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:46,000 Speaker 1: in a war of attrition with Maga Nuts from minute 62 00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:49,200 Speaker 1: one of her term. She needs a Democratic Senate, she 63 00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:52,920 Speaker 1: needs a Democratic Congress, and that will give the Republican 64 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:57,040 Speaker 1: Party time to work through its many issues, which will 65 00:03:57,080 --> 00:04:01,360 Speaker 1: require at some level the political equivalent or the political 66 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:05,080 Speaker 1: version of a medically induced coma. And hopefully, and even 67 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:07,840 Speaker 1: the most liberal Democrat in the country should want this. 68 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:11,400 Speaker 1: Hopefully eight years from now, ten years from now, which 69 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: will come quick, there will be a healthy, normal Republican 70 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:17,839 Speaker 1: candidate again, and this Trump error will be something that 71 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:22,320 Speaker 1: everybody denies, that everybody says, who no, I wasn't for him. 72 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:25,040 Speaker 1: That's the direction. The best result we're going to get 73 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:28,359 Speaker 1: is a country that ten years from now everybody's like Trump, 74 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:30,640 Speaker 1: who yeh, no I wasn't for him? And when the 75 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 1: people who are most forum deny him will know then 76 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:37,000 Speaker 1: fully that it's all over. The question is ken the 77 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:40,479 Speaker 1: Trump campaign distanced itself from pariahs like Laura Lumer and 78 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:43,279 Speaker 1: Mark Robinson, And the answer is no, because they're all 79 00:04:43,279 --> 00:04:45,920 Speaker 1: part of the same cabal, the same cause, the same 80 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:49,640 Speaker 1: team their family, and as Trump said, this is who 81 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:53,520 Speaker 1: he thinks Mark Robinson is Martin Luther King on steroids. 82 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:57,440 Speaker 1: The question is, while I do maga Republicans continue to 83 00:04:57,520 --> 00:05:01,400 Speaker 1: call for a cessation a violent re rhetoric while speaking 84 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:07,599 Speaker 1: increasingly with more violent rhetoric. What MAGA is asserting is 85 00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:12,919 Speaker 1: a dogma of control. And so let's look at specifically. 86 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:16,240 Speaker 1: They're eating the pets, the Haitians are eating the dogs, 87 00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:19,480 Speaker 1: eating the cats. If I can make you believe that, 88 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:23,320 Speaker 1: despite the mayor, the police chief, all of the evidence, 89 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:25,520 Speaker 1: if I can make you believe that, am I going 90 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:27,640 Speaker 1: to be able to make you believe that the election 91 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:29,640 Speaker 1: was stolen when I lose it? And the answer to 92 00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:32,680 Speaker 1: that question, of course, is yes. The very first thing 93 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:36,320 Speaker 1: that happened in the Trump administration, the first thing was 94 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:40,719 Speaker 1: Sean Spicer walked out, stood behind the blue podium in 95 00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:45,240 Speaker 1: the briefing room and said that Barack Obama's crowd size, 96 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:50,279 Speaker 1: which was the largest and inaugural history, was smaller than Trump's, 97 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:55,400 Speaker 1: despite their being pictures that showed Trump's was smaller than Obama's. 98 00:05:55,680 --> 00:06:00,200 Speaker 1: This wasn't a lie puffering. This wasn't somebody exaggerating a 99 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:02,920 Speaker 1: bit about something they did or didn't do. It was 100 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:05,839 Speaker 1: a lie of obedience and control. There's a scene in 101 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:09,239 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four at the end when Winston is being 102 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:12,560 Speaker 1: tortured and the party official holds up four fingers and 103 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:15,440 Speaker 1: says Winston, how many fingers am I holding? And Winston 104 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:19,400 Speaker 1: says four, I only see four. The party official makes 105 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: the point to Winston that the answer is, however many 106 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: the party tells him is the answer. So if the 107 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:28,440 Speaker 1: party holds up four fingers and says it's three, then 108 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:33,480 Speaker 1: it's three. Not in America. And so this obedience, the 109 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:39,719 Speaker 1: ability to make somebody surrender to you their problem solving skills, 110 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:45,880 Speaker 1: their intellectual agency, their sovereignty as a human, as American said, 111 00:06:46,279 --> 00:06:49,000 Speaker 1: Trump will tell you, this is something that is endemic 112 00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:52,680 Speaker 1: to every authoritarian cause and regime. And the big lie 113 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:56,120 Speaker 1: and the little lie come together, and we have an 114 00:06:56,200 --> 00:06:59,680 Speaker 1: issue now in the country that the lie in the 115 00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 1: true truth exists in a battle space together out there 116 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,560 Speaker 1: on the horizon where no one can tell the difference 117 00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:10,640 Speaker 1: between the two. And that is lethal in democratic governance. 118 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:14,200 Speaker 1: It's lethal because if you can't tell the truth what's real, 119 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:18,760 Speaker 1: it's not possible to have accountability. And without accountability, None 120 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:22,760 Speaker 1: of this works. I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning 121 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:26,240 Speaker 1: and I invite you to join. Subscribe on our substack, 122 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:32,640 Speaker 1: on our YouTube channel, follow us. Welcome to the community.