The former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said something incredible. Before I play it, I want to talk for a second about what it is that you're going to hear. What Chris Christie is about to say is that it is most likely that by August 23, when Donald Trump steps onto the Republican debate stage, behind the center podium as the front runner, that he will be out on bail in four different jurisdictions. Again, the Republican frontrunner, the 45th president of the United States, will be out on bail from his arrest in four different jurisdictions included amongst the charges, or attempts to overthrow the government, most likely to interfere in an election, counts under the Espionage Act, and specific attempts to overthrow the Georgia election. It is incredible. Let's watch Chris Christie.
I want voters to listen to this, it is most likely that by the time we get on the debate stage on August 23, the front runner will be out on bail in four different jurisdictions, Florida, Washington, Georgia, and New York, out on bail, and he's sitting there at a rally for two hours last night talking about his own problems.
We don't talk often enough in America about how relatively small the primary participation is amongst both Republicans and Democrats. Who is it that is choosing the candidates that will be the choice in a general election, where registered voters can decide whether or not to participate and choose between the parties nominees? Let's do some very, very simple math. We'll keep it at whole numbers. So it's very, very easy to add up. There's roughly 330 million Americans in the country. In 2016, there were less than 30 million total votes cast in the Republican primary. What that means is registered Republicans or the small number of independents who choose to vote in Republican primaries, where they can, account for less than 10% of the country's population in aggregate, and are the group that sent Donald Trump forward to be the Republican nominee. Let's think about Donald Trump today. I put forward a question we don't talk about very much. Why is it that Donald Trump is leading the Republican primary race? What is it that Republican voters find so profoundly deficient about all of the other candidates that they would stay loyally behind Donald Trump -- a man whose corruption is fantastical, a man whose narcissism and self regard is indescribable. As Chris Christie pointed out, he talked for two hours about what? Not about America, about the future, about domestic tranquility, peace, prosperity, jobs. Did he talk about economic opportunity? Did he talk about the economic dislocation that will come from artificial intelligence? Did he talk about the insolvency of America's entitlement programs? Did he talk about the unpreparedness of America's military to fight in the Pacific? No. He talked about none of those things. Because he cares about none of those things. And more specifically, he cares nothing about the people in the country who should care about all of those things. Why is it that a minority faction of the country is so wedded to, so beholden, so insistent that amongst all of us, the worst of us, must lead us? Why are they so insistent that a man who ended the peaceful power lead us? Why are they so insistent that a loathsome man who ended the American miracle, the tradition of the peaceful transition of power begun in 1797, be the President of the United States? Why do they demand that a man who desecrated his oath, who incited violence against the American Republic be made commander in chief? Why do they demand that Donald Trump be the commander in chief of the world's most potent nuclear arsenal? It is unacceptable. And it means for the rest of us that we have to do something about it, that we have to become involved. Because it is not okay to be apathetic, when roughly 10% of the population of the country is trying to demand that somebody be elected into a position of leadership that is wholly indifferent to the lives, the success of the families, the children of the American people. T
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 2024 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 was 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, s, CH mid t.substack.com. Again, Steve schmidt.substack.com, or at the link in the show notes section below. Thank you, to each and every one of you for listening, and watching.
American politics has been broken for a long time. And the evidence of its brokenness is that a man like Donald Trump could rise to the top. Donald Trump did not begin the tradition of American extremism. But what he does represent is a moment in American history when the extremists were able to through a massive backlash, take for a short time, political power. And what they did with it is appalling. It isn't so much that Donald Trump lied 35,000 times to the American people who he worked for. It's that in doing so, he eradicated the boundary line between reality and fantasy, between the truth and the lie. What Donald Trump advanced in American life was a proposition that what was true was what the leader said was true. And this is as un-American a sentiment as there could ever be. This is a country of independence, of liberty, of free thinkers, where the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, the freedom to decide what is right and what is wrong for yourself, is paramount to the life of a free person. When Donald Trump said that he could shoot somebody in broad daylight in lower Manhattan and get away with it, it was an authoritarian statement. What he was saying is that he's above the law, that his support is so rabid, so fervent that he can do whatever he wants. It's been long said that the American presidency reveals character. And it revealed something terrible about Donald Trump. We don't talk enough about Donald Trump and his lowest moments in the presidency, which are far worse than 35,000 lies. There's the moment where he asked questions of the American military, about inflicting violence, and death, and permanent injury on the American people, for daring to protest peacefully against him. He asked if they could be shot in the legs. He asked if they could be wounded, instead of killed. Donald Trump would certainly do that if he could -- lock up his political opponents, and worse. And in fact, he's told us as much over and over and over again. Donald Trump's platform was non existent in 2016. And in 2020, but he has a platform now. His platform is revenge and retribution. And he's made that perfectly clear. Time and time again, in the early months of this national presidential campaign, he wants revenge against the people who didn't vote for him and against the country that rejected him. What Donald Trump stands for is a faction and that minority faction has a bet. They are betting that a plurality of Americans, them, plus apathy, will elect Donald Trump. And then, that apathy will be instrumental in helping them strip quickly the freedoms, the protections and the norms that have safeguarded American liberty, just in time for the country's 250th birthday. Donald Trump is as dangerous a figure as this country has ever produced. He is a direct threat to American freedom. He is a direct threat to your children's prosperity. He is a direct threat to America's domestic tranquility. This era must come to an end. Donald Trump is a grifter, who has inspired thousands more. He has filled American politics with legions of those who have made being unprincipled, virtuous. He has made it the fast track to getting ahead. And the only people in the world who can bring this to heel, who can bring it to an end, who can say enough is enough are the American people. When Chris Christie gets on that debate stage with Donald Trump it will be an occasion for somebody for the first time ever with an "R" next to their name, to look him in the eye and to tell Donald Trump what is defective about him and his 10%. They are not a majority. They are not close to being one. Nor are they a plurality. Nor are they close to being one. What Donald Trump has created in this country is a vast mob. When it manifests itself physically like last night, it is smaller numbers. It is the larger mob when counted as a digital presence. It is mean, it is nasty. It despises its country because it hates an idea, which is central to it. And here's the idea. It is an idea that endures until it doesn't. And when it doesn't, the country ceases. It no longer exists. It exists today as an idea, of a manifestation of an ideal that all of us are created equal, endowed by a Creator with unalienable rights amongst our life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is the American creed. And in our third century, upon the eve of our 250th birthday, the overwhelming number of American people believe that this applies to everybody without regard to their race, to their gender, to their ethnicity, to their religious beliefs. Everybody deserves to be treated with respect, and is entitled to the liberty that is the birthright of all Americans through sacrifice that beggars the imagination. Our birthright is not one of Donald Trump's wins. His abuses are not acceptable. His threats against America aren't either. He has been able to gain power because he was able to steamroll a class of cowards. That is unprecedented in the long history of America. He steamrolled the leaders of his political party and without exception, except for Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, and a few more. Everybody got in line. Now, Donald Trump wants his old job back. And the American people should understand this is an all or nothing proposition. It's a zero sum contest. If Donald Trump does get his old job back, he won't give it up again. It means it will be our last election, at least our last free and fair one.
Thank you for watching. Make sure you subscribe to our channel so you never miss a video. Also, for more content just like this, please consider joining our warning premium community. You can find out more in the description below.
