Steve Schmidt destroys 'despicable' GOP for turning Trump loose

Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt railed his old party for putting party over country and refusing to curtail President Donald Trump’s power grabs.

“It's an age of epic cowardice of selfishness of greed,” Schimdt told Left Hook podcaster Wajahat Ali. “These are despicable, villainous people, and I think the High Court of History is going to judge them very, very harshly.”

Thanks to Republicans, Schmidt said the nation no longer has the system of checks and balances envisioned by the founders of the country.

“A system with checks and balances and a separation of powers and a separation between church and state in the country … is foundational to who we are, to what we are,” said Schmidt, a co-founder of the Lincoln Project. “And Donald Trump assaulted the cornerstone of the country when he tried to allege that a legitimate election was stolen on the basis of bunkum.”

After that, Schmidt said no Republican had the strength to tell Trump ‘no, you lost,' or 'no' to practically anything.

Ali pointed out that almost every single Republican truthfully knows the threat that Trump poses, and considers him an “idiot.” And yet they follow him.

“They know who he is,” said Ali. “… Steve, every single Trump supporter, during my time at CNN, pulled me in the green room, including Scott Jennings — all of them, except two: [influencers] Paris Dennard and Jeffrey Lord, the weirdo who used to live with his mom in the basement. Those were the only two Republicans who seemed like true believers. But Steve — hand on my heart — every other person in the green room said ‘he's an idiot. His base are idiots.’”

But then, when they go “live,” Ali said every one of these same Republicans would spin and argue that “Donald Trump made a good point” or “Don't take him literally and seriously.”

“[a Trump Republican like] Marco Rubio is an actor. They all are. Because we know what Marco Rubio said about Trump … in 2016,” said Schmidt, referencing Rubio calling Trump a "con-artist" who was hijacking the Republican party in a Republican primary debate.

“They laugh behind the scenes. And everyone in the green room knows that. Everyone in the media knows that. But they're in on the joke. They're in on the show. In the meanwhile, really the greatest idea in human history, the United States of America, has become deeply imperiled,” said Schmidt. “… Marco Rubio cannot ever split the difference between what he used to say and what he does now. And there's no way to get there.”