Longtime political consultant Steve Schmidt gave a hopeful lesson on U.S. history during a Saturday interview by CNN's Jim Acosta.
Acosta asked about the upcoming public hearings by the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The host wondered how Fox News would cover the hearings.
"How is it going to play in conservative media? What are Trump folks going to do to distract everybody? There's reporting that the Trump people are going to distract from the hearings," Acosta said. "It reminds me of if a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear it, does it make a sound? In MAGA world, if they're distracted by the shiny objects, is it going to sink in, have the same effects the Watergate hearings had 50 years ago and so on?"
"I think the communications that exist in the world today are different than 50 years ago," Schmidt replied.
"The reality is that there's a sophisticated, complex, interconnected, global misinformation network, dubbed as 'Fox News' in this country, that misinforms people at an industrial level," he explained. "Now 25% of the country is completely supportive of the MAGA movement, of Trump, I suppose of the insurrection."
"The reality is though the overwhelming majority of the country is opposed to it. And I think the country will tune in here to the facts. The simple fact is that we live in a constitutional republic, it is the oldest in the world. That republic requires citizens who have a sense of both obligation and responsibility," he continued. "A republic doesn't function without informed citizens and so, the choices ahead, the facts that will be laid out, are important or significant, and the country will be exposed to them."
"And at the end of the day, the facts are the facts. They will be overwhelming, the evidence will be laid out, my view is that the American people -- we're not passive about the future of the country. You can look at the 1930s — took a long time for people in the United States to awaken to the threat. You can look at the 1850s. you can look at other comparable periods of time before the progressive era, the beginning of the 20th century. When people awaken to a threat, they awaken," he explained.
"People who first awaken look at dismay at others. The story is clear, when the American people are confronted overwhelmingly with facts they react to it, particularly when it speaks to the threat that faces a country that contains their children and their futures," he concluded.
Watch the segment below or at this link.