Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. For earlier access to these episodes, access
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Speaker 1: The situation we find ourselves in as a country didn't
Speaker 1: happen overnight. It is the accumulation of events over decades.
Speaker 1: The American people have looked, They've seen, They've seen the
Speaker 1: greed of the elites in American society. They've come to
Speaker 1: the conclusion that there's one set of rules for people
Speaker 1: at the top and a different set for everybody else.
Speaker 1: Citicism replaced faith in belief in the majesty of the
Speaker 1: American system of government. We have lost sight in this
Speaker 1: country as a general proposition around the meaning of patriotism
Speaker 1: what it is. We have adopted instead a type of
Speaker 1: performative jingoism, the type that we see at NFL games.
Speaker 1: A few minutes of loud, cheering, giant flags, expensive military
Speaker 1: hardware flying overhead, people screaming, chanting USA, USA, USA, mindlessly
Speaker 1: over and over again. That's not patriotism. Patriotism is a
Speaker 1: deep faith in the idea that animated the United States
Speaker 1: of America and brought it to life. The right to vote,
Speaker 1: to choose is elemental to being an American and towards
Speaker 1: the foundation of the United States. This country rejected the
Speaker 1: idea of a king. It eradicated the notion that there
Speaker 1: are some people born above others, in a higher station
Speaker 1: of life, who have titles and land in perpetuity. They
Speaker 1: are above. They are the dukes and the earls, and
Speaker 1: the king in America said no. George Washington was a
Speaker 1: man who could have been king, could have been emperor,
Speaker 1: could have been a military dictator. And each time when
Speaker 1: he stood at the edge of maximum power, he walked
Speaker 1: away from it, and by doing so, he set in
Speaker 1: motion the most important tradition in American life. That tradition
Speaker 1: is the peaceful transfer of power between chief executives between presidents,
Speaker 1: and it had gone on uninterrupted in America since George
Speaker 1: Washington turned over the presidency to his successor, John Adams.
Speaker 1: All that had to happen for that to occur was
Speaker 1: for John Adams to raise his hand and swear a
Speaker 1: thirty five word oath, and in that instant he became
Speaker 1: the second President of the United States, and every president
Speaker 1: since has sworn the identical oath. But there is only
Speaker 1: one president who has breached that oath, who desecrated it,
Speaker 1: who tried to burn it to the ground. Not through misconduct,
Speaker 1: though he engaged in more misconduct than any president in
Speaker 1: American history. Not through corruption, though he engaged in more
Speaker 1: corruption than any president in American history, but through a
Speaker 1: declaration of repudiation against the American Revolution. That declaration of
Speaker 1: repudiation were the speeches that Donald Trump gave between his
Speaker 1: loss of the election and January sixth. They are the
Speaker 1: speeches that antagonized and incited a mob to march on
Speaker 1: the capital of the United States of America in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, on a mission to hang the vice president
Speaker 1: and stop the certification of a presidential election, where Joe Biden,
Speaker 1: who had been duly elected, would take the final steps
Speaker 1: in preparation to his inaugural as the forty sixth President
Speaker 1: of the United States, the forty fifth man, to raise
Speaker 1: his hand and swear Washington's Oh, that is what Donald
Speaker 1: Trump desecrated, ruined, and bloodied every person in this country.
Speaker 2: All of us are part of a great inheritance passed
Speaker 2: on to us our ancestors. Whether they'd be black, women, white, Latino, gay,
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter. All played a part, all struggled for freedom,
Speaker 2: all endured, and they handed to us a better, freer
Speaker 2: country than the one they were born into.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to my political commentary. If you
Speaker 1: like what you've heard today, please also consider subscribing to
Speaker 1: The Warning daily newsletter on Substack. Our democracy hangs in
Speaker 1: the balance. The twenty twenty four presidential election is the
Speaker 1: most consequential in America's history. It's not hyperbole, it's a fact.
Speaker 1: That is why the mission of the Warning with Steve
Speaker 1: Schmidt is to help readers orient to the currents that
Speaker 1: are shaping our times and the unseen forces driving politics
Speaker 1: that are very rarely discussed on cable news. Please sign
Speaker 1: up at Steve Schmidt st e ve E, S, C, H, M, I,
Speaker 1: d T dot substack dot com again Steve Schmidt dot
Speaker 1: substack dot com, or at link in the show notes
Speaker 1: section below. Thank you to each and every one of
Speaker 1: you for listening and watching. We stand at an hour
Speaker 1: where we are poised to be the first generation of
Speaker 1: Americans to betray that trust, to hand our country to
Speaker 1: a next generation, more divided, weaker, catering, decay, rotting from within,
Speaker 1: And what is the evidence of that, the broad national
Speaker 1: indifference towards the ambitions of a man who tried to
Speaker 1: burn it all down, who wants power again. In this moment,
Speaker 1: indicted on charges that could bring him six hundred years
Speaker 1: in prison, the former president of the United States remains
Speaker 1: in a competitive race against Joe Biden. What Donald Trump
Speaker 1: did is unpardonable, It is unforgivable. The issue is that
Speaker 1: Donald Trump wants political power outside an election process. It
Speaker 1: says something remarkable in the indictment, something declarative, simple. He
Speaker 1: lost the election. In our corrupt media at Fox News,
Speaker 1: at Newsmax, at an across the board let donald Trump's
Speaker 1: poisoned fantasy run wild. Fox News for stoking the conspiracies,
Speaker 1: was forced to pay a settlement of almost one billion dollars,
Speaker 1: yet they are undeterred. On the night of his indictment,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump was having dinner with the chairman and the
Speaker 1: president of Fox News, Suzanne Scott. Donald Trump didn't try
Speaker 1: to tear down American democracy alone. He did it with
Speaker 1: a phalanx of propagandas in front of him collaborators, people
Speaker 1: like Suzanne Scott, who have contempt for their country, who
Speaker 1: have no affection, save for money, save for power, save
Speaker 1: for the perception of their own influence. Think about the
Speaker 1: sacrifices that have guaranteed American freedom. Think about Gettysburg. Think
Speaker 1: about the crossing of the Delaware, the Normandy Landings, think
Speaker 1: about the Edmund Pettis Bridge, Think about the blows coming
Speaker 1: down on John Lewis's head, the blood, the murder, the sacrifice.
Speaker 1: And we are prepared as a nation, as a society,
Speaker 1: to lay it all down, to end it all, to say,
Speaker 1: the insatiable narcissism and appetite of Donald Trump. How is
Speaker 1: it that our society, our country could have become so sick?
Speaker 1: What is it about freedom and liberty that the American
Speaker 1: people and mass have become so detached from. Here's the deal.
Speaker 1: We must say no to this. There are more of
Speaker 1: us than there are of them. And by them, what
Speaker 1: I mean is this the people who want power without
Speaker 1: us giving it to them. It's unacceptable, It's un American.
Speaker 1: But that is exactly what Donald Trump stands for. Make
Speaker 1: no mistake about it. It's what this election is about.
Speaker 1: He's running on a platform of revenge and retribution and
Speaker 1: he means it. He is hostile to this country's creed,
Speaker 1: it's traditions, its ideas, its ideals, and most importantly, it's people. Yes,
Speaker 1: the American people. We are more than a name, more
Speaker 1: than a tribe. We are a great civilization, a society,
Speaker 1: a nation. Trump tried to rip it up. Are we
Speaker 1: really going to let him. It's time as a civilization,
Speaker 1: as a society, as a people to bring this madness
Speaker 1: to its end. It is time to repudiate this insanity.
Speaker 1: It is time to remind the queen's hustler, the developer,
Speaker 1: the reality show host who improbably was given the greatest
Speaker 1: honor that any American can be, that he is not
Speaker 1: bigger than the country, that he is not above the law,
Speaker 1: and that this country chooses its leaders, not the other
Speaker 1: way around.