Former Republican operative Steve Schmidt issued a dire warning during an interview with MSNBC Thursday. And the failed leadership of President Donald Trump is to blame.
Schmidt maintained that no "shakeup" is going to save Trump from losing in November. If he wants to win he'll have to change, and after four years, he doesn't expect that to happen.
"The job of campaign manager for Donald Trump is a joke job just like White House chief of staff is," said Schmidt. "They have no power, no authority. Jared Kushner runs the campaign and does so at the whim of Donald Trump. Whether it's Bill Stepien and Brad Parscale or 150 other names, the issue is Trump. The secondary issue is Trump. Trump, Trump and Trump always. He's presided over a catastrophe in this country and really the unleashing of a type of national insanity."
When speaking about the American place among the other nations navigating the coronavirus, Schmidt said that there was a message appearing on sidewalks all over the U.K. saying "Americans must be accompanied by an adult."
"We're a national laughing stock," he explained. "The president is a national laughing stock. When you ponder that the richest and militarily the most powerful country in the world, the country with the world's leading research universities, the most advanced math and science country in the world, that we've brought low by conspiracy theorists on a cable news network, by talk radio hosts, by internet trolls, by a president who refuses to read and do his homework, refuses to listen to medical experts, who only cares about himself, not the American people, cares only about his re-election. The American people have been gaslighted, lied to."
He went on to say that there is about 30-35 percent of the country that has pledged allegiance to a cult of personality instead of to America and Americans.
"When you look at that Tulsa rally and you see those people there -- I wish these people no ill," Schmidt continued. "I want them to be successful and happy and for their families to be safe. I don't want to be ruled under them. The foolishness of the mindless cheering for someone as they described their walk down the narrow and shallow West Point ramp or their talent at drinking water with two hands, it's just madness."
He went on to call the American people the "last line of defense" for the U.S. when they go to the polls in 111 days.
"As George Will pointed out in an important column in the Washington Post, this is what national decline looks like," quoted Schmidt. "This is what a spin to the ground looks like. We are out of control as a country. There was a real lack of imagination on the part of the American people four years ago about the capacity for someone like Donald Trump to cause real tragedy. We should all be woken up now. We should be paying attention. This man must be defeated if there's to be any chance to come out of this. Otherwise, the country will be in an irreversible decline. The America that was, will be no more. We'll be a rich country. We'll be a powerful country militarily, but we won't be the pre imminent country in the world anymore. That will be the singular result of Donald Trump being the 45th president of the United States."
Watch Schmidt's full comments below:
