Lincoln Project founder Steve Schmidt tore into the Republican party in a lengthy monologue on MSNBC Wednesday night, warning that given power they'll destroy democracy.
“American politics realigned this month,” said Schmidt. “We are now one election away in this country from losing our democracy because one party doesn't believe in it. We saw the poisoning of American democracy drip by drip this month until we saw 82 percent of Republicans said ‘hey this is illegitimate' and once you reach that critical mass you're in a lot of trouble as a society and a country. And this is going to be the defining political fight I suspect over the balance of all our lifetimes. Try a historic month and not one for the good in the middle of a profound calamity. Trump's vandalism of this country and its institutions is profound and it will be damaging for a long time to come.”
Replied Nicolle Wallace: “I do not understand how elected Republicans like Mitch McConnell, and even right-wing hosts like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, do not say, today, there's a line that can't be crossed and that's violence.”
Replied Schmidt: “That line is in the rearview mirror, Nicolle. They crossed it. They crossed the Rubicon. They crossed it in the month of November. We cannot be fantastical in wishing what has happened has not happened in our thinking. It has happened. We've watched it play out. We've watched Trump and his loony attorneys. We've watched the declarations of fraud. We've seen United States senators, members of the House of Representatives, they all know — they all know that Biden has won the election. What they're doing is for no purpose other than power. The Republican Party is an organized conspiracy for the purposes of maintaining power for self-interest, and the self-interest of its donor class. There is no fidelity to the American ideal.”
“There has never been a force that has achieved power, or is within reach of achieving power in the next election, that's been so hostile to the history, the founding, the essence and the entire meaning of the country, as is this Trump and Trumpist movement that has taken over lock, stock, and barrel the Republican Party,” Schmidt added. “It's no longer dedicated to American democracy. It is dedicated to Trump and Trumpism and to his family, to defense of his indecencies, his autocratic manner, his corruptions, an apologist for the profound damage he has done.”
