Editor's Note: Steve Schmidt is one of the founding members of the Lincoln Project. He is a communications and public affairs strategist who has worked on several Republican campaigns, including John McCain's 2008 bid for the White House, and he is now a regular political contributor to MSNBC.
On Wednesday, America's articulate assassin continued his assault on Donald Trump with a six-tweet takedown of the administration's continued refusal to accept defeat. MaxNewsToday has assembled these tweets and reprinted them as one easy-to-read op-ed for our ongoing segment, Schmidt Storm. It has been edited for grammar and clarity.
The Trump coup rolls on. Fueled by Donald Trump’s brittle ego, idiocy, malice and the political cowardice of most all elected Republicans, this sad spectacle seems like the perfect ending to the reality-show presidency. It feels more like “Moon over Parador,” than any type of real threat, but it is a threat nevertheless.
Trump’s voter-fraud lies are like poison. Cyanide. DEMOCRACIES require faith and belief in the legitimacy of free-and-fair elections. The entire system is built on this proposition.
The American polity is being poisoned by Trump’s lies, conspiracy theories, baseless lawsuits and refusal to concede in an election he lost. The conduct of GOP leaders remains appalling. Everyone of them knows that Joe Biden is the legitimate president-elect and that Trump has been defeated.
This is all about them trying to avoid Trump’s retribution in Georgia. Apparently, the plan is to sate the insatiable ego of the defeated president by bending to the arc of his whims, fantasies and fabulisms. Trump hangs over the heads of all the 2024 candidates and the Georgia runoff like Damocles’ Sword. What to do about a problem like Donald Trump? For now, for the most part, GOP leaders, forever tainted by the stench of Trump, have refused to recognize a legitimate election result. Erdogan has. They have not.
Biden is right. They will, but not before more division is sewn, and our democracy is further weakened.
The pandemic is raging out of control. Each day of unnecessary delay during the transition process will kill Americans. It is immoral. The American people have spoken. Trump lost. The Trump coup rolls on.
Soon, it will roll over the edge of the cliff.