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 responded to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's statement about Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. MaxNewsToday has assembled this 11-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.
These are hollow words from the most cynical of men.
I knew Kevin McCarthy well once, or thought I did. Kevin McCarthy demands accommodation for anti-Semitism and Marjorie Taylor Greene's poisonous conspiracy theories. He blames Steny Hoyer for protecting the integrity of the institution?
Kevin McCarthy is a shameless man.
He is the type of man who poisoned our democracy with his cynical embrace of the big lie and advised his caucus that it was an “easy vote” to throw out the votes of millions of Americans, including millions of Black Americans, to achieve an outcome which would have made the loser of the election the first American dictator and ended the Republic.
He is the type of man who will cynically pay his respects to the flag-draped coffin of a police officer, who was murdered by the violence caused by his incitements and lying. Kevin McCarthy is the Puyi of the Potomac. He rules over his insular Manchukuo with puppet-like predictability.
The Freedom Caucus pulls his strings. Kevin McCarthy believes they hold the keys to his fantasy of the speaker's gavel. He lacks the strategic acumen to understand that the power they once wielded to deny him the speaker's chair didn’t require his capitulation to their insanities and hypocrisy.
It is that capitulation that has broken the House Conference. Kevin McCarthy equals chaos forever.
Soon, we will announce the partnerships that will deny his Conference tens of millions of dollars in donations. That money is gone forever because of the vote on the 6th of January. It means McCarthy’s finance operation will be increasingly reliant on the Trump crazies and QAnon small donors.
It’s a death spiral and Kevin McCarthy is at the wheel. McCarthy, playing the role of Bakersfield Bohrmann to the delusional Duce of Mar-a-Lago, has made clear that Trump is the past, the present and the eternal future of the GOP.
There is a simple truth, and it must not be forgotten or evaded. The flag of the United States was ripped down, and the MAGA flag was raised over it within the hallowed grounds of the U.S. Capitol. The transition of power was not peaceful; it was blood soaked. That blood is on McCarthy like it is on Trump, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley.
Lastly, let’s be clear about something else. QAnon conspiracy theory is simply an update on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. McCarthy denounces anti-Semitism while sheltering the anti-Semite by creating a smokescreen of bad-faith accusations against responsible leaders like Steny Hoyer, who are reacting to the startling clarity of Marjorie Taylor Greene's hatred and extremism. Kevin McCarthy stands clearly in the light of day. He stands in open coalition with the seditionists, militia extremists, white supremacists and conspiracy loons. Kevin McCarthy has made his deal and has made his conference a party to it. They will all be his hostages until they aren’t. McCarthy is weaker tonight then he was this morning. The Lincoln Project looks forward to the fight.
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