Steve Schmidt Explains How To Debate Donald Trump and WIN

President Biden when it comes to debating Trump. The first piece of advice I would give him is that any person around you, anybody who tells you that it's okay for you not to debate Donald Trump, is a fool and they have no business none giving advice during a presidential campaign. These debates will decide the future of the

United States of America. These debates are the most significant since the Constitutional debates, because what Donald Trump proposes is to undo the American revel to break the foundations of the republic, and to become dictator, to smash the government. He's a nihilist. There's no candidate ever who's a bigger target for Donald Trump. The fact of the matter is Jakim Jefferies can run circles around him. Can you imagine John Kennedy in a debate with Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan,

Bill Clinton, Barack Obama. The great worry that so many of us have is that President Biden in this moment is going to have a hard time. The most worrying part of this, because he's going to have a hard time, is this idea that, well, you don't have to do it. You can run for president without the aid Trump, without confronting him. Presidential campaign is the most intense competition that

doesn't involve death on Earth period. Think about all the hype around the Super Bowl, coach Big Red, Shanahan, Mahomes, all of it to game. This is real life. This decides the future of the United States, and it requires the president to be tough. He's the president of the United States and Donald Trump is the greatest domestic enemy

America has ever produced, at least in Jefferson Davis. He needs to confront him, and he needs to proverbially body slam him on each question through either the floor or the wall. And honestly, if the President cannot do that that he should abandon his quest for the Democratic nomination and take the steps necessary for the Democratic National Committee to open the process to find the mix of candidates

that could do that. Because Gretchen Whitmer could do it, Davin Newsom could do it, Wes Moore could do it, and it must be done. There is no chance of winning this election without this contact happening. It's like looking at a football game and having people on the sideline saying, well, we're gonna win the game, but we're not gonna tackle anyone today. There won't be any contact. There'll be no hitting.

This isn't real life. Joe Biden has to face this monster down, and he is a monster and he needs to put him down. That's his dude, that's his job. And that is the climax of the presidential election, face to face, and it will happen, and if it goes bad, Trump is president. Question is who does a better job messaging?

Democrats are Republicans Beside the scale the dimensions of the right wing propaganda machine in this country is profound. Democrats don't understand it. Joe Biden is extremely successful president who has failed to communicate any level that success. There's no there's no contest here. The Democrats communication strategy seems to be modeled on a version of how you run a nuclear plant from the Chernobyl Handbook. It's awful and we're at risk to losing our democracy, to losing the repub

because of it. You have to be able to communicate great ideas, great ideas. Donald Trump's insanity is simplistic, deranged. The media is corrupt, they seek to monetize it. They want the conflict. All of these things are true, but it doesn't mitigate the responsibility of the most powerful person in the country and those around him with the most powerful microphone in the world to use it effectively. Because the president's bully pulpit is the only thing more powerful

than this giant propaganda machine. This asked me anything question is what do Democrats need to do to win in November.

I'm getting very frustrated. Well you should be. I'm frustrated too, because this question isn't talked about very often. But what does it say about the Democratic Party? What does it say that if the election were tomorrow they would lose the presidency to Maga and Donald Trump. The reality is whoever the election is about will lose, and Donald Trump has made the election about Joe Biden, which is why

Joe Biden is presently losing the election. Donald Trump was losing the twenty sixteen election until the very end with James Comy made the election about Hillary Clinton, and very narrowly she lost. Remember, President Biden won across three states by forty five thousand votes. Trump needs to be mocked, laughed at, humiliated, disparaged, and taken seriously. He needs to be confronted on a daily basis. What should the president do?

He should walk out behind a podium in a way that doesn't show him shuffling for twenty seconds, and he should hit Trump, take no questions, and do it again at one point thirty, and do it again at five o'clock. The Biden White House has to take control of the media cycle, and it has to take the fight to the extremists. Every woman in America needs to understand that this country is filled with theocrats who want to subjugate them, and one of them is the Speaker of the House.

They need to understand the rapist who took away their abortion rights is going to take away their birth control. They need to understand the hostility of the Christian nationalist movement to the idea of modern womanhood, modern motherhood, the idea of women in the workplace. As as generals, as senators and governors and presidents. They need to look at their daughters and understand how much smaller the world gets

under the magas son. There's no way for Joe Biden to run a campaign based on what he's already done. This is a delusion and it's not how politics works. What a candidate runs for office, like President Biden did, they make promises. The fact that Joe Biden kept his promises is not a reason to re elect Joe Biden. It was the reason to elect him. It's not a past fail test. What the American people want to know is what are you going to do for me next?

Because they don't remember what you did for them lately. Because the American electorate is cole and unfeeling and ungrateful towards their politicians, there is no thank you. Do you know what to thank you is to thank you as Air Force one and Marine one in the White House in Camp David, that's the thank you. So saying that the Chips Act was great is terrific, but not as

a political strategy. Fifty years from now, history will make certain that Joe Biden is credited as being an infrastructure president on the scale of both Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower. There's no question about that. But is that what Eisenhower ran on in nineteen fifty six infrastructure. There is a delusion of group thing in a small, cloistered, cliquish Washington DC political community that has helped this orient so much of the political staff in the White House. No one cares.

The choice ahead is a choice about the future, and what Donald Trump is promising is order out of chaos. And if you turned on the television and saw the chaos after the Kansas City Chief Super Bowl parade, understand Though it's the extremest Republican position that allows for the easy proliferation of guns everywhere, the chaos that it produces benefits the strong man candidate. So the Biden campaign needs

to get it together like six months ago. And part of the reason I've started talking more directly and aggressively about it after biting my tongue for three years through worry, is that there's no more time to waste. Not a debt. The question is is there any point at which the people still funding Republican politicians will believe it is in

their self interest to stop. The people who fund Republican politicians of billions of dollars fund those politicians because it is in their self interest. Think of Steve Schwartzman, one of the great hedge fund titans. He is also one of the chief funders of the fascist cause in America, as is Larry Allison. Tens and tens of millions of dollars. What they are doing is buying, buying tax rates, buying preferential treatment. They've created a society a part money has

corrupted the American system profoundly. In each restriction, each attempt to take money out of the system has just made it worse. So what does it take to bring an autocratic movement to life. Well, the first thing you need is the autocratic leader, Bingo Trump. Second thing you need around the cultural personality is the cult. Trump has a

cult of personality because he has a cult. That's what we talk about when we mentioned the thirteen or fourteen million people or so that are a third of the Republican Party that believe there's a conspiracy to steal the election involving Travis Kelcey and Taylor Swift. Third thing an autocratic movement needs is a propaganda element. Bingo's got that. Fox News, Newsmax, social media, Elon musk Win, The lie and the true stand equally in the public square. Democracy

is in grave crisis. It's very sick. But that's not enough to bring an autocratic movement to life. What you need is the cynicism of the elites. The Josh Hollys, the Ted cruz is some of the most highly educated people in America who went to the most elite university's FAVARDT. Stanford. But they'll do anything for power. One of the most important presidents of the twentieth century, John Kennedy, addressed this

in his inaugural address. He said, beware the men, the foolish men who seek power by riding the back of the tiger, only to wind up inside. That's what happened to Josh Holly and Little Marco and Ted Cruz, humiliated at the hands of a man who assaulted their dads, their wives, called their spouses ugly, defenestrated them, he masculated them. But despite all that, their cynicism is so powerful, their desire for power so great, they can't keep off the

back of the tiger. But that's not enough. All of those things together aren't enough for the autocratic movement to take off into the air. They need money, and the money comes when people make a transaction. And that's why America today is this a soft oligarchy where government agencies clear quotes about Elon Musk with Elon Musk before they talk to a free media. It's outrageous. Adam Kitzinger, the

former congressman from Illinois, has talked about this. This country is completely over dependent on people who have become some of the wealthiest in the world on government contracts like Musk, who increasingly coddle, for example, the Russian dictator while controlling, as the Russians once did, our access to space commercially and militarily. So we need to be a lot smarter about this and understand how deep the rod is. And

it's just not the MAGA movement. Robert Menendez from New Jersey was found with gold bars, leased in suit jackets and cash, and Chuck Schumer said when it was one of his guys, well, he's a great public servant for this New Jersey? Are you kidding me? Chuck Schumer, who is no genius and anyone who watches the warning knows I feel that way. Does it seem to understand that his citizenism helps who Trump? Because in a world where everybody's viewed as dishonest and the result is of who

cares attitude? Who wins the most dishonest guy? Thank you for listening to my political commentary. If you like what you heard today, please also consider subscribing to The Warning daily newsletter on Substack. Our democracy hangs in the balance. The twenty twenty four presidential election is the most consequential

in America's history. It's not hyperbole, it's a fact. That is why the mission of The Warning with Steve Schmidt is to help readers orient to the currents that are shaping our times and the unseen forces driving politics that are very rarely discussed on cable news. Please sign up at Steve Schmidt S T, E V E, S C, H M I d T dot substack dot com again Steve Schmidt dot substack dot com, or at the link

in the show notes section below. Thank you to each and every one of you for listening and watching