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 issued a 6-tweet thread decoding House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for the general public. MaxNewsToday has assembled this 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. I hope the primer below is helpful in decoding the latest in poisonous nonsense from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who now says he accepts that Joe Biden is the President of the United States. Since most of the assembled media reacted to this rhetorical slight of hand like defanged cobras mesmerized by the snake handler's flute, I think it deserves a bit unpacking. 1. Joe Biden IS the President of the United States. 2. Every American should share equally in the boredom and genuine disinterest around what Kevin McCarthy does or doesn’t accept. Who cares. There is no relevance. 3. The question that matters is this: “Do you recognize, acknowledge and assert without qualifications that Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump decisively in a free, fair and legitimate election? Of course, this is the question the leader of the House autocrats is running from, but there is no escape from it. It is the essential marker in American political life. It marks the boundary waters between reality and fantasy and the truth and the lie. It marks the front lines in the battle ahead between American democracy and the autocratic cancer that blossomed from the poisonous Trump Presidency. The use of language matters, and understanding the code words is more important than ever. There is no higher strategic priority for Trump, McCarthy and Mitch McConnell than making the murderous insurrection disappear into the fog of a culture without memory. If that is allowed to happen, we will lose the country. The cover-up of what happened on Jan. 6th by Trump and his cabal of elected autocrats guarantees more political violence, death, extremism and instability in the years ahead.
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