As impeachment and the Iowa caucus converge, some of the hosts on MSNBC were panicking that Bernie Sanders would lose to Donald Trump. On Monday afternoon, this fear prompted a historically bizarre rant from MSNBC analyst Steve Schmidt on Monday over how the “sociopath” Donald Trump would beat Bernie Sanders. He also insisted that Trump is now the most “powerful” president ever, beating out FDR and Lincoln.
Talking to Nicolle Wallace, a liberal network host, Schmidt warned of the unlimited power the soon-to-be acquitted Trump now holds: “At the aftermath of this when he is acquitted, there will never, ever have been an American president with the power that Donald Trump posses right now in this moment. Not FDR in the Second World War. Not Lincoln in the Civil War. No president is as powerful as Donald John Trump in this hour to see his acquittal play out.”
What? Trump is more powerful than Franklin Roosevelt? This is the man who, after the 1940 elections, saw his Democratic Party win 267 House seats. The Republicans had a scant 162. Democrats had 66 seats in the Senate. Republicans only 27. It was after this election, during World War II, that FDR interned Japanese Americans. Previously, he came perilously close to packing the U.S. Supreme Court.
But Trump is more powerful? There’s also Lincoln suspending suspend habeas corpus and John Adams having the Alien and Sedition Acts at his disposal.
Schmidt’s apocalyptic warnings of a dictatorship don’t make much sense as there’s an election in nine months. Something that the MSNBC analyst noted when he called Trump a “sociopath.” He fretted that Sanders’s socialism would mean four more years:
In a red hot economy, whether Democrats in Iowa believe that socialism is better than capitalism or not, the country we live in, the United States of America, my view would be that the sociopath beats the socialist every day of the week and twice on Tuesdays in November.
Ultimately, it’s up to the “sentinel” otherwise known as the Democratic Party to save the country:
We have two major political parties in this country. And we've seen the wholesale corruption of the Republican Party. We've seen it emulate over these last couple of years. Become absolutely a principal-est vessel. So the Democratic Party is called, in my view, at this hour too, be the sentinel of American democracy. As an institution, it has an awesome responsibility in this moment of time and that's to put a candidate forward who can repudiate Trumpism and beat Donald Trump in November.
Another MSNBC star, Chris Matthews, is not happy with the 2020 Democrats. On Monday, he blurted: “I’m not happy with Dem field. I think they have to find a candidate for President that can beat Trump... I’m still looking.”
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more:
MSNBC Impeachment coverage
02/03/2020
4:15 PM ET
STEVE SCHMIDT: We have two major political parties in this country. And we've seen the wholesale corruption of the Republican Party. We've seen it emulate over these last couple of years. Become absolutely a principal-est vessel. So the Democratic Party is called, in my view, at this hour too, be the sentinel of American democracy. As an institution, it has an awesome responsibility in this moment of time and that's to put a candidate forward who can repudiate Trumpism and beat Donald Trump in November.
(....)
SCHMIDT: In a red hot economy, whether Democrats in Iowa believe that socialism is better than capitalism or not, the country we live in, the United States of America, my view would be that the sociopath beats the socialist every day of the week and twice on Tuesdays in November.
(....)
SCHMIDT: And so the American people in the oldest constitutional republic in the world will have to decide: Do we want at the head of our country a president or a have a king? Do we want to have an emperor? Do we want somebody who sits above the law? Do we want somebody who is unaccountable to the institutions that, from the beginning of the country, have said that no institution, no person in the country is above the law. That’s what we fought a revolution for.
And so, there’s a fundamental question that now sits on the table 11 months before an election. But make no mistake: At the aftermath of this when he is acquitted, there will never, ever have been an American president with the power that Donald Trump posses right now in this moment. Not FDR in the Second World War. Not Lincoln in the Civil War. No president is as powerful as Donald John Trump in this hour to see his acquittal play out.
