It is the final schmid storm before the inauguration. I'm in Vegas. You've got questions, I have answers. Let's get started. The question is what can Democratic senators do to oppose the worst of Trump's nominees. Democratic Senators, as you know, are in the minority, and they're going to stay in the minority. This is very important for Democrats to understand the action is in the house. Chuck Schumer is the ultimate Washington DC checkers player, routinely hailed as a genius,
who's not. He's a person who got sixteen hundred on his SAT scores but would have a hard time making it around the block without assistance. You have a guy who's been hailed for twenty years as a political genius, who has played the hand over these last elections and left to Democrats without much possibility of getting back into the majority before twenty twenty eight because of the map. It's appalling the Democratic senators did not coordinate their messaging,
did not coordinate their questions. So maybe they'll coordinate their opposition, because if they don't coordinate their opposition, what's the point of the Democratic Party. The opposition to Trump will have to come from somewhere else. The simple truth about this moment is the Democrats are as capitulant towards Trump as everybody else. Tommy Tuverville, the adult from Alabama, put a hold on the nominations of the entirety of the senior
military leadership. The Senate is filled with rules and procedures to give the minority power. Every single rule should be exploited. Democrats should put holds on these nominations or make clear that they'll hold up nominations everywhere grime the government to a holt make it clear that the ascension of Pete hag Seth and Tulsei Gabbert into these life and death position is unacceptable. And the Democrats should be on every
television show. They should be shouting from the mountaintops, they should be holding news conferences, and instead they're appeasing Trump and they're rolling over and it is utterly, absolutely unacceptable. Particularly with America's fighting men and women, these Democratic senators have an absolute obligation and responsibility to have the backs
of those men and women. In a way, for example, that Jony Ernst does not question is how should Americans feel about the big tech CEOs descending on Washington, d C. For the inauguration Ais Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon must all of them, Jeff Bezos, Ed Moore gathered together. They're not there to witness the peaceful transition of power and the majesty of an American inauguration that did not happen in twenty twenty, and so this inauguration is stained by
that travesty. The tech bros, oligarchs all are coming to Washington to celebrate not the peaceful transfer of power, but power, raw political power. They are coming like feudal lords to the court of the king with tribute. They're coming to be nice. And how should the average American feel about these people. They should be scared of them. They should be frightened because they have immense power, and the fear
isn't baseless. American people should view them the way our ancestors viewed the railroad barons at the beginning of the Industrial Age, with a lot of skepticism. And in the end, these people are not all powerful in their dreams of conquest and power and control over all things everywhere. Will come to dust like all such dreams, because the American people in the end will break up these companies. There
was a king once. He was a bad king, and the American farmers overthrew him and we became a country. Because mankind is ingenious. There are all sorts of people who have tried in all sorts of new ways to
become kings. In America. These guys are the latest batch, and like everybody else, their ambitions will seem reachable for a while, and then the American people will rise up and say no, and we will break up their companies, and all of the things that happened to all of the railroad and all of the oil trusts a century ago will happen to them because we're a free society and they are impediments to the exercise of freedom because
their companies are about control. The question is, what is my reaction to Donald Trump raising the American flag to full staff in violation of protocol during the morning period, which lasts thirty days. For President Jimmy Carter, I think it's despicable, and I think it's even more despicable that the Speaker of the House, who lacks dignity, toughness, and judgment, would allow him to do it. The speaker is like the mayor of an institution, the House of Representatives. It's
one of the most important institutions in the country. And he's the guy where Nancy Pelosi was, the woman who makes the decision about these things. Flags, protocol, rank, everything matters in Washington. The symbolism. There's a reason the flags are flown at half staff for thirty days in a period of morning. When a president does what Donald Trump is doing is an action which is typical in that
it aggrandizes him while diminishing an institution, disrespecting it. And so it is an act of disrespect on the one hand, and an act of appeasement and weakness on the part of Mike Johnson who's letting him do it. And it's despicable and every American should be offended by it. The question is if I would react to Joe Biden's farewell
addresses and speak to his legacy. Joe Biden's legacy is going to be one word five letters in Boston, fake gold, letter T, letter R, letter U, letter M, and letter P. But together it spells Trump. And it's what Joe Biden gave America. It's what he left America. It is his legacy. And let me just say when doctor Jill says that she's upset with Nancy Pelosi because somehow Nancy Pelosi betrayed the Bidens by pointing out too late, as was the case that he was unfit to finish the campaign, let
alone another term. She felt betrayed personally, as if Nancy stole the favor of Biden heir loom from the coffee table. The American presidency does not belong to the Bidens, or to the Bushes, or to the Clintons. It belongs to you.
It's offensive in the extreme, and so in an era of selfishness where it is practiced by too many people, nobody should be surprised that the guy who won the race was the Michael Phelps of selfishness, was the usine Bolt of corruption, the fastest man alive when it comes to scump baggery, Donald Trump, and in a race where
the scum baggery is featured, scumbag wins. And the great achievement politically of Joe Biden and the Democratic Party of this moment, and one around which there's not been much real soul searching but a lot of denialism, is Joe Biden. A very small group of people, through their abject selfishness managed to lose an election not on the economy, not on national defense issues, but on honesty to the most prolific liar in American history. They lost the election on
the border. Who was telling the truth about it? Trump or Biden? That to be Trump? Border was out of control. The American people saw it. Who was telling the truth about the economy? Trump said it sucked? Biden said it was the best it could ever be, the greatest economy in American history. They called the Biden nomics, and the people around him called him fder. Who's being honest about the economy? That would be Trump? Again, it did suck if you were a working person. And who is being
honest about Joe Biden's condition? Who is being honest about the one term pledge? Would that have been Biden? Or would that have been the most prolific liar in American history? You see, one of the great problems American life is the cult of fandom that's taken root. For example, let's talk about another broken promise. Karen Bass. She said she would never ever leave the state except for it to go to Washington and New York if she had to. She left the state she went to Ghana and it
burned down. And when you point that out, there's a sizeable portion of the American elector that says, how dare you say that about Karen Bass? And because of those people, we got Trump. And until the opposition party can offer something new and fresh and better produce candidates with conviction, who can speak extemporaneously, don't need a teleprompter, know what they're talking about, have some manner of expertise about law,
about politics, about sociology, psychology, history of the country. They're doomed. Just the greatest defeat by a political party in American history, not by the nature of the vote count, but because of who the opposition was. When a political party loses to an unfit movement and an unfit and moral leader, it must reflect on itself. If you're a Democrat out there, you're mad at me for saying this, You're nuts. This is the warning. I want to win again in four
years before they burn the country completely down. I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning, and I invite you to join. Subscribe on our substack on our YouTube channel, follow us. Welcome to the community.