'Secret police in a banana republic': Steve Schmidt shreds James Comey's 'massive act of ego'

Steve Schmidt, the Republican strategist who ran Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, blasted FBI Director James Comey on Monday for inserting himself in the presidential race.

"Let's step back," Schmidt told a panel on MSNBC's Morning Joe. "This is about ego. This is about someone who's been in public life, who's had a reputation as a man above politics, better than it. And this was a massive act of ego, the unprecedented steps he took earlier in the summer, which boxed him in over the last week."

"And what he's done is he's injected the FBI into the middle of a presidential campaign nine days out," he continued. "It's the premiere law enforcement agency in the world. He's brought profound discreditation to it. And add the FBI now to the list of institutions that have lost trust with the American people."

Schmidt liken the FBI to "some sort of secret police organization in a banana republic" because agents had leaked information to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

"It's shameful," he insisted. "This is not how we do politics in America!"

"We have a presumption of innocence," Schmidt added. "The notion that you level an accusation, you have a candidate out there chanting or leading the chants of 'lock her up, lock her up, lock her up,' like we're a country run by the colonels with sunglasses. I mean, we ought to step back and think about that a little bit."

Watch the video below from MSNBC, broadcast Nov. 7, 2016.