Welcome to episode two of the schmid Storm. You have questions, I have answers. Let's get to it. Here's a great question, and it's if Kamala Harris is the winner of the presidential election while serving as the President of the Senate as a function of her being Vice President of the United States, is she able to certify the election as the presiding officer of the United States Senate like Mike Pence was on January sixth of twenty twenty one, but
in her favor. And the answer to the question is yes. And this is exactly what George Herbert Walker Bush did as Vice of the United States when he certified the election as President elect of the United States. Now Al Gore had to certify the election after the Florida standoff in George w. Bush's favor. This day is one of continuity. It is part of the majesty of a process that was stripped of all of the rituals of monarchy, and so the founders of the country substituted royal ritual for
secular ones. Now think about George Washington surrendering his authority to Congress. This is the turn bolt painting in the rotunda of the capital. It's one of the most extraordinary in American history, and it captures a moment that the artist thought was the most magnificent in human history, because it's about power, and specifically about political power in America. The French Revolution, which was a cousin of the American Revolution, went completely off the rails. It became a bloodbath of
despotic violence. Liberty can easily succumb to the disease of authoritarianism, to despotism. It is a facet of a mob. A
mob empowered through democratic institutions is a mob. Nonetheless, the American founders sought to restrain all of this, and the most Titanic figure among them was Washington, the commander of the army the Virginian And when the war was won, the king George the third, who had lost half his empire and wondered if Washington would be king, a monarch with an empire and ambitions greater than his and England's, And he was told that Washington would return home to Virginia.
George the Third was astonished by it. He said, if that's true, Washington will be the greatest man of this or any age. And Washington came on that day. In that painting to Annapolis, he was met at three Mile Oak and escorted into town where he appeared before the Congress. And in the painting, there is a chair and no one sits on it. It's outside. It's bigger than the rest. It is the throne that he will not take. Draped over that chair is Washington's military cap. He will not
be a caesar. And on that occasion, Washington, in a very scripted ceremony, bows to Congress, subordinating his ambition, his office, his power, to the elected will of the people and their representatives. It's an astonishing act, and Washington did it twice. Now, Trump of Queen's a hustler and a con man, who did not serve in combat, did not fight for his country, and who said that his own Vietnam was avoiding venereal disease in Studio fifty four, who later went on to
become a rapist and a convicted felon. Donald Trump wishes to wear the cap of a caesar, and he wishes to sit in the throne chair of an emperor as president, with the power, according to Trump, to send sealed team Sex to kill Hillary Clinton. No thanks, there is nothing that Donald Trump can do to stop the transfer of power after a legitimate election in the United States, though he may try. The question is envisioning a Kamala Harris victory.
What can she do as president to communicate to disappointed Trump voters. One thing that Kamala Harris should do immediately is call on young people to serve their country. There's an enlistment crisis in the United States Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, the Space Force. There's vacancies in the Peace Corps. She should call a generation
to service. She should be optimistic about the future, and by calling the country to service, so have an opportunity not to talk about the Democratic Party, but about the United States of America and about our common interest. She should assemble a cabinet that looks like America. She picked a vice president who represents a broad swath of America. A lot of Americans can see themselves in tim walls,
and that's a good thing. Kamala Harris should say explicitly and directly, I am President of all Americans, especially those who I'm honored to represent who opposed me. Everybody gets a fair shot here. She has to show equanimity of character, generosity of spirit, good faith and good will. She needs to go out into the middle of the country. She needs to meet the American people, know the American people,
and build trust with the American people. This country is craving and it badly needs a great president and a great presidency. And the simple truth is great presidencies follow disaster. Trump is that type of disaster. I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning and I invite you to join. Subscribe on our sub stack, on our YouTube channel, follow us. Welcome to the community.