The Republican base, and most Republican officials, seem happy to let Donald Trump do anything he wants. They don't mind that he has alienated most of our allies. They don't care that he lies an average of 15 times a day. And they don't seem to care that he has mishandled the Coronavirus pandemic -- unnecessarily costing the lives of thousands of Americans.But there are still a few Republicans who haven't abandoned their honor and morality. One of that few is Steve Schmidt. Schmidt's GOP credentials are impeccable -- having worked on the campaigns of George W. Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and John McCain (where he was a senior campaign strategist for his 2008 presidential bid).
Schmidt has been critical of Donald Trump in the past, and now is especially critical of Trump's mishandling of this pandemic.
Here is what he told MCNBC's Ari Melber in a recent interview:
I think the White House has done, historically, very poorly in this. This is one of the most significant crises in American history. It’s certainly the largest American crisis of our lifetimes, and it’s been the most inept response by the executive, by the president, think, with regard to any crisis in American history but, certainly, any crisis in our lifetimes. And we look at a president, who is so clearly in over his head and out of his depth, who has been dishonest, who has been imprecise, who’s been inaccurate, and whose deadly indecision will be paid for with the lives of tens of thousands of Americans, as this virus escalated to a place it never need have gotten. And that is all because of the wasted month of February, where the president was hate tweeting, firing people that he was angry with over impeachment, going on campaign rallies and golfing. And, now, the country is paying the price for that. We should be careful to understand that when the same guy says, ‘Well, it’ll be back in September but we’ll make it go away really quick,’ is the same guy when there were 15 cases in the country, said, ‘Soon, it would be gone to zero and it would disappear like magic.’ The lack of credibility in these evening news events is epic and unlike everything we’ve ever seen. It’s a Baghdad Bob show every night of the week, day after day, the airing of the grievances, the airing of his anger issues. The attacks on the governors. We see every night all of the qualities you never, ever want to see in a leader in a crisis when lives are at stake.
