Editor's Note: Steve Schmidt is one of the founding members of the Lincoln Project. He is a communications and public affairs strategist who has worked on several Republican campaigns, including John McCain's 2008 bid for the White House, and he is now a regular political contributor to MSNBC.
On Friday morning, Schmidt reacted to Republicans' continued refusal to recognize Joe Biden's election win over a series of five tweets. MaxNewsToday has assembled these tweets and reprinted them as one easy-to-read op-ed for our ongoing segment, Schmidt Storm. It has been edited for grammar and clarity.
Let’s be clear.
Joe Biden is the President-Elect of the United States. The refusal of Republicans to acknowledge this are poisoning American democracy. They are breaking faith with our history, ideals and ideas. It is unforgivable and dangerous. It is UNAMERICAN and disloyal.
It is outrageous that Mitch McConnell has not congratulated the president-elect, and Kevin McCarthy’s comments intimating that Trump may yet win are even worse. Trump’s delusional temper-tantrum is proof of his manifest unfitness and insanity.
The corruption of this process, the peaceful transition of power by the cowardly, sniveling GOP Congress, is the gravest vandalism of our system yet. We will live with the consequences of their cynicism and illiberalism for a long time.
For the first time in our history, the losing side of a presidential election is refusing, en masse, to recognize the clear winner of a legitimate, free-and-fair presidential election. Instead, they are weaving conspiracy theories about fraud that doesn’t exist, and drop by drop they are strangling faith and belief in American democracy for tens of millions of people.
Shame on them for the damage they have all done and continue to do to this country. Eventually, this will trigger violence, and when it does Trump, his family, his staff and his GOP enablers will own it.
They have incited it.