1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,640 Speaker 1: You and I have talked privately about John McCain now, 2 00:00:03,680 --> 00:00:06,400 Speaker 1: but I want to ask you a question because I 3 00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:10,559 Speaker 1: think this is important. The Republican Party doesn't have anymore 4 00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 1: John McCain's, you know, like leave the Democratic Party aside 5 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:21,639 Speaker 1: in their fecklessness. But John McCain, God bless the man's memory. 6 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:26,840 Speaker 1: God bless his moral turpitude. God bless his ability to 7 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:29,920 Speaker 1: stand up in front of an entire country and take 8 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:35,920 Speaker 1: his pow ridden arms and post thumbs down that day 9 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:38,800 Speaker 1: he voted against He was a dear leader who he 10 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:42,800 Speaker 1: did not buy into all the time. And I know, listen, 11 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:47,680 Speaker 1: you're Mondays with Liza are like mandatory watching everybody. If 12 00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: you don't subscribe to Steve or Ryan Lizza, tell us 13 00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:54,720 Speaker 1: you have to. You guys talk about the Democrats, you know, 14 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:58,440 Speaker 1: inability to do anything for the American people because they're 15 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:02,280 Speaker 1: still so institutionalized. But I pushed back, and I look 16 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:05,920 Speaker 1: at the Republican side of this. There is no John 17 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:09,399 Speaker 1: McCain in the Republican Party. And because there is no 18 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:12,720 Speaker 1: John McCain in the Republican Republican Party, because Mitt Romney 19 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:16,520 Speaker 1: has effectively been clipped, and because no one really gives 20 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:19,399 Speaker 1: a shit about anything on the GOP side of this 21 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:22,959 Speaker 1: equation other than keeping their black car and their stipends 22 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:27,320 Speaker 1: and their expense accounts. You have literally an army of 23 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:30,720 Speaker 1: willing assholes who will do anything that Donald Trump wants 24 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:33,720 Speaker 1: him to do. And I would, I would question that. 25 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:35,399 Speaker 1: I would, I would pose that to you. You know, 26 00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:39,440 Speaker 1: where are the John mccains of this world in this party, 27 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:42,560 Speaker 1: Someone that you know you ran his campaign, someone that 28 00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 1: you respect, someone that you know you know you take 29 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:48,280 Speaker 1: an on bias. Look at John McCain. It doesn't matter 30 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:51,440 Speaker 1: who you voted for. That fucking guy's an American hero 31 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:54,880 Speaker 1: who stood up for the virtues of what America should be, 32 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:57,440 Speaker 1: who stood up to Vladimir Putin called it a fucking 33 00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:01,400 Speaker 1: gas station. Russia called it a gas station. And I 34 00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:04,160 Speaker 1: would ask you that question, is that what has he 35 00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:08,040 Speaker 1: been Trump been so effective at at rooting out any 36 00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:13,120 Speaker 1: kind of you know, character from the Republican Party because 37 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:16,720 Speaker 1: we don't have any more John McCain's. And that, to 38 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:18,360 Speaker 1: me is a fucking travesty. 39 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:22,120 Speaker 2: Look if I if I went, if I went to 40 00:02:22,240 --> 00:02:28,359 Speaker 2: Bhutan like later this evening and hyped up to the monastery. 41 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: By the way, I wouldn't doubt if you went to 42 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:30,840 Speaker 1: Bhutan later. 43 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:38,280 Speaker 2: This is this is like what I'm going to contemplate, right, 44 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:45,480 Speaker 2: And I'm not and I'm not trying to. So it's 45 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:49,680 Speaker 2: like a very deeply personal question to me at one level, 46 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:54,760 Speaker 2: or I take it that way because I can't. I 47 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:59,079 Speaker 2: can't separate the intellectual side of it from the personal side. 48 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:02,679 Speaker 2: And I have this conversation and I don't but I 49 00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:05,960 Speaker 2: never talked about kind of conversations, you know, with friends, 50 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:07,920 Speaker 2: and I don't think I'm gonna get in trouble. But 51 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:11,200 Speaker 2: I was talking to Nicole Wallace, who's a very very 52 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:15,720 Speaker 2: dear friend of mine, and you know, has been since 53 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:18,639 Speaker 2: since we were kids, right since we were in our twenties, 54 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:22,200 Speaker 2: and we were we were in we met working in 55 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:28,080 Speaker 2: California politics, in the in the California legislature, and I 56 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 2: grew up in New Jersey, Nicole grew up in California. 57 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:40,960 Speaker 2: And we were moderate Republicans, right we were. We were 58 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:48,320 Speaker 2: part of a tradition of moderate Republicanism, but that tradition 59 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:53,000 Speaker 2: was the majority of the country, right Roald Ronald Reagan 60 00:03:55,240 --> 00:04:00,000 Speaker 2: was elected with forty nine states in nineteen eighty four. 61 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:06,480 Speaker 2: It was a broad coalition every person that I ever 62 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:12,840 Speaker 2: worked with ever, right, And I work closely with Liz 63 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:19,200 Speaker 2: Cheney in a campaign, right, So Liz is there, But 64 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:24,200 Speaker 2: almost every person I've ever known, on the day that 65 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:29,240 Speaker 2: Donald Trump came down the escalator, we all had the 66 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:38,279 Speaker 2: same position. Everybody was repulsed by But ten years later, 67 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:46,360 Speaker 2: not having moved a fucking inch from the original position, 68 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:56,440 Speaker 2: and having been proven correct that what comes next is 69 00:04:56,680 --> 00:05:01,080 Speaker 2: A and what comes next is B after A on 70 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:03,960 Speaker 2: a ten year basis, as we've come so far down 71 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:12,200 Speaker 2: this river, right, why was there such moral cowardice? Why 72 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:17,160 Speaker 2: was there such capitulation? There was some level absolute power 73 00:05:17,320 --> 00:05:25,000 Speaker 2: corrupts absolutely that fear is a powerful motivation, this notion 74 00:05:25,320 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 2: that in a taker society, I'm gonna get mine and 75 00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:33,400 Speaker 2: there's no cause greater than self interest. Really, which was 76 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:37,920 Speaker 2: the antithesis of what McCain believed in what he talked 77 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:44,599 Speaker 2: about all the time, was that the greatest part of 78 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:50,159 Speaker 2: living is to be part of a cause greater than yourself. Right. 79 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:56,039 Speaker 2: But the thing is for me because because I didn't 80 00:05:56,160 --> 00:06:00,480 Speaker 2: step off the line, I didn't get in line, right, 81 00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:06,760 Speaker 2: And I'm not blind to the fact that I'm an 82 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:12,640 Speaker 2: incredibly small number of people who operated at the highest 83 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:18,039 Speaker 2: level of the Republican Party in Republican politics who did 84 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:23,680 Speaker 2: not did not get in line with this and did 85 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:27,480 Speaker 2: not bend Denie, will not bend denie no matter no 86 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:30,560 Speaker 2: matter what right, And it's brought a lot of threats 87 00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:34,960 Speaker 2: and a lot of abuse. I had to I had 88 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:37,520 Speaker 2: to move out of my house because of the threats 89 00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:41,839 Speaker 2: in the in the and the danger that was unleashed 90 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:48,080 Speaker 2: by the by the insanity. But what would John McCain 91 00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:54,120 Speaker 2: more than anything else, He was a defiant guy, right, 92 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:57,440 Speaker 2: He was the worst of the worst prisoners in prison, right, 93 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:00,680 Speaker 2: Like I mean, after they torture to beat them, they 94 00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:02,320 Speaker 2: throw them in the cella and ask them if he 95 00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:04,200 Speaker 2: had anything else to say, and you give them two 96 00:07:04,279 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 2: middle fingers and say fuck you. Right, And there's a 97 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:16,600 Speaker 2: moment where you got to be defiant. And there's a 98 00:07:16,600 --> 00:07:19,000 Speaker 2: lot of people that are very afraid, but you have 99 00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:23,680 Speaker 2: an absolute right to speak out. It's not seditious to 100 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:29,440 Speaker 2: call Trumpet fascists. It's accurate, right, And so you know 101 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:33,320 Speaker 2: the way way you realize right when you when you 102 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:36,720 Speaker 2: when you look back for real and what happened in 103 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:42,960 Speaker 2: World War two, most people collaborated. The resistance was a 104 00:07:43,040 --> 00:07:52,640 Speaker 2: small number of people, right, And in the end, you 105 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:54,720 Speaker 2: know what you look at. You look at some of 106 00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 2: the people that you know that I know that have 107 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:02,720 Speaker 2: made different decisions that I've made, aid, you know that 108 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:11,520 Speaker 2: are buying third homes, second homes, giant boats. Not for me. 109 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:17,200 Speaker 2: I think that there are some things that you can't 110 00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:21,040 Speaker 2: you can't get in line behind, and all this stuff 111 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:25,160 Speaker 2: is one of those. Thanks. I'm Steve Schmidt. This is 112 00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:28,080 Speaker 2: the warning. I invite you to join this community where 113 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:32,200 Speaker 2: I promise to be honest, blunt and direct about what 114 00:08:32,320 --> 00:08:36,320 Speaker 2: is happening in this country. America is in crisis. Follow 115 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:39,960 Speaker 2: and subscribe to this channel and on substack. Thank you.