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, Schmidt examined the current state of chaos in the Republican Party on his Twitter feed. MaxNewsToday has assembled this 6-tweet thread and reprinted it as one easy-to-read op-ed for our ongoing segment, Schmidt Storm. It has been edited for grammar and clarity. This political moment around Liz Cheney’s fate in GOP leadership is part of the fallout from the historic and infamous events of Jan. 6th. Kevin McCarthy led his caucus over the cliff and created an irreconcilable breach that will destroy the GOP, as surely as the Kansas-Nebraska Act broke the Whig Party. The Members who embraced the “Big Lie” and voted to overturn certified elections and nullify millions of Black votes can never be reconciled with Members that remained faithful to the Constitution. They are our time’s slave masters and abolitionists. It is irreconcilable.
Kevin McCarthy led a majority of the GOP conference to establish a new Jim Crow caucus, which by their vote established an historic record that 140 white members of the House proclaimed the right to decide which Black votes count in 2021. They voted to maintain the power of the defeated president after a violent insurrection was incited by Trump. McCarthy speaks of unity with a forked tongue. What he offers is an alliance between Trump and his movement. It comes at a high price. It demands permanent obedience and loyalty to Trump. It demands fidelity to the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. It demands an accommodation with the white supremacists, nationalists and the seditionists clad in pro-Auschwitz sweatshirts. It demands applause for Marjorie Taylor Greene. Their unity is a mirage. Kevin McCarthy is red-faced and stuttering tonight. Extremism is the brand of the GOP. It isn’t going away. We have a real life and very dangerous autocratic movement in this country. It’s home is the GOP.
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