Former McCain advisor warns a peaceful transition of power is doubtful if Donald Trump loses the election.
Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” campaign strategist Steve Schmidt warned that the “peaceful transition of power” would be “in doubt” if Donald Trump loses the election.
Schmidt, senior adviser to John McCain’s failed 2008 presidential campaign, suggested that the Republican nominee might refuse to concede the election and provoke his supporters by claiming the election was rigged.
Schmidt described Trump’s appeal to his base as being “toxic for democracy” while speaking with political commentator Mike Barnicle and with commentator and media personality James Carville, who first rose to prominence for his work as the lead strategist for the successful presidential campaign of Bill Clinton in 1992.
Barnicle began by pointing out that Trump has already been laying the groundwork for the idea of it being “an illegitimate election” if he loses.
“Trump has a core constituency that’s not going anywhere. It’s going to stick with him and believe in him and what he says no matter what,” he continued, warning: “this does not bode well for the future of the republic that this is going to be out there for years to come. The illegitimacy, the rigged election, the emasculated presidency.”
Schmidt agreed, stating that “this is incredibly toxic for a democracy.”
“The first person who addresses the Victor in a presidential election that matters, right, isn’t the staff. It’s the opponent. It was John McCain calling Barack Obama,” he stated. “But making that concession call, that kicks off the process of the peaceful transition of power. The loser grants legitimacy to the winner through the concession speech.”
Carville interjected that “if one guy could have taken his army and gone in the woods and conducted guerilla warfare, it would have been Al Gore,” the clear implication being that he didn’t do so.
Schmidt continued, explaining that this “peaceful transition” was now “in doubt in this campaign.”
Carville returned to the discussion regarding the “transition process” at the end of the segment, asking Schmidt about being there when Bill Clinton received the concession call from then President George H.W. Bush and later when McCain “made the call to Barack Obama.”
Pointing out that “it’s a lot more fun to be on a winning presidential campaign than a losing presidential campaign,” Schmidt explained that ” We knew we were going to lose the election. We took very seriously on the McCain campaign our obligation to play our small part in the beginning of the process that has been uninterrupted in this country since 1797. The peaceful transition of power.”
Through civil war, through world War, through great depression, through assassinations, other moments of national crisis. The resignation of a president. It is fundamental to who we are as a people. What we all agree on in an election, in the American system, Democrats, Republicans, is that we settle our differences at the ballot box and the loser grants legitimacy to the winner by buying in to the legitimacy of how we pick our elected officials. Is how we pick our leaders.
Pointing out that “not a single time in any election in the entire history of the country” had “the efficacy of the election in voting itself” been questioned like this, Schmidt concluded by warning that “when you have someone months out from the election saying, ‘well, no matter what, if I don’t win, this is not a legitimate outcome, it’s a rigged system’ … it’s dangerous. It’s radical. And it’s something we ought to talk more about. Because if we come out of this election and you even just have half the Trump voters. You know, but you have 20%, 5% of the country that just doesn’t buy in to the outcome of the election, it’s dangerous. It undermines the pillars of how we function as a democracy as a country.”
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