Welcome to another edition of the schmid Storm. You have questions, I have answers. Let's get started. The question is with a third party candidacy break the Maga grip in twenty twenty eight? I don't think so. In fact, it is the case that a third party candidacy might help elect the extremist candidate. Here's the thing. A healthy political system does not produce to Trump presidencies. A healthy society does not countenance Donald Trump being the all dominant figure in
the culture for ten years. It just doesn't. And so the question is, when you give consideration to a third party candidacy, who is going to say what about the shouts of spoiler? The system is rotten, It's completely broken. There are seven twenty six million plus people that voted for Kamala Harris. But the truth is the Democratic Party is controlled by about seventy five people. Those seventy five people aren't on your side. They don't care about your family.
What they care about are consulting contracts. What they care about is power, just like their Maga brethren. And so it is theoretically possible for an independent candidacy to thread the needle to win the presidency. It's a billion dollar project. It will take somebody tough as nails. But the truth is can it be done? Yes? Should it be done? It should? Does it deserve to be done? Of course? Who will be the first person to rise up will be the people who are around Joe Biden shouting spoiler.
Politics is about the preservation of power, and the one thing that the American people are alive to all the time about is this notion that these two institutions, the Republican and Democratic parties, the first and third oldest political parties in the world, have nothing in common. They have a lot in common, and the thing they have most in common is they want the other to remain the only competition. It's a duopoly. And they're not looking for
any outside forces to say you're both left up. And the reason you're hurting the country is because we've watched for a quarter century the dance of the scorpions, the two rattlesnakes living together in a bottle, and the result for the country has been awful. The question is, with the horrific state of the American media, with so many acts of capitulation, who can we trust, Who can we get the news from? Who is on our side. Great question. Let me go through a couple of things that I
read every day. I read The Guardian, I read Puck News on substack. I'm thrilled that the veteran reporter journalist Ron Fournier is starting to write. I read Joe Klein on substack, and Chris Solizza, Claire Berlinsky, Sasha Ingberg. When it comes to politics, I trust Nicole Wallace, I trust George Stephanopoulos, but I don't trust the management at ABC. And I think David Muir is a preposterous figure. He's
an actor and a reader. Call him whatever you will, but he's more Gap model or Abercrombie pin up guy than he is what Peter Jennings was David from Peter Wayner. Many writers at The Atlantic are must reads. I read The New York Times and it has some of the greatest journalists in the world, but its political coverage is a complete and total disaster, and I don't go there
for that. I think the Wall Street Journal, by and large and its news coverage is a superb newspaper, and it has claimed, with the collapse of The Washington Post, to be the best in the country, which is incredible. Given that it's owned by the Murdochs, the free press
has become essentral reading for me every day. And I'll tell you what an answer to this question, We will publish a list of people that I think are trusted, that are ethical, and most importantly, people you may disagree with, but will never bow down, will never put themselves before your interest in knowing what is happening. Why is the banning of TikTok in the United States such an important
issue to so many politicians. That's a simple answer. It is a tool that can be used to reach every American young person, It can collect the data of every American who uses it, and it's controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, which is a hostile foreign power. Politicians in America look at this and they react to it in a couple of different ways. As a parent, I see it, I look at my kids. I shake my head because of the idiotization that flows from it. But that's not
a reason to ban it. The reason to ban it is that no country in the world would tolerate the reciprocal that TikTok represents with the Chinese Communist Party, tolerate an American owned information platform that communicates and accumulates data
directly on every Chinese citizen absolutely not. They would not, and so Supreme Court today is likely to uphold this ban, and the ban is likely in the interest of America's kids and America's national security because for the previous point, the Chinese Communist Party is neither benign, harmless or on your side. 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.