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 Tuesday, Schmidt alleged that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, both men of Cuban heritage, would have supported Fidel Castro had they lived in Cuba during the 1950s and 60s. MaxNewsToday has assembled this 10-tweet thread and reprinted it as one easy-to-read op-ed for our ongoing segment, Schmidt Storm. It has been edited for grammar and clarity.
Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are party men. It doesn’t matter which. They lust for power and have no connection to America and our ideas and ideals. If their sedition were to succeed, it would end the Republic. A generation ago, there would have been a national consensus that these are soft and unprincipled men. There would be near unanimity that their character was loathsome and repellent. They are avatars of self-interest, greed, corruption and cowardice. They represent all of the most unworthy vices. Ted Cruz does this all, cynically, in the service of a man who slandered his father and called his wife ugly and insane. He is the definition of a punk. Marco Rubio is a fraud of Trumpian dimensions. We look forward to the next two years where we will tell the story of LITTLE’S or LiL’s corruption, grift and staggering hypocrisy. Trust me when I say this. The hypocritical and sanctimonious tweeting of Bible versus will absolutely not protect him. Marco Rubio should heed the words of the great Bob Marley. “You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time.” Shame on you, Lil Marco. The accountability hour is coming. Strap up Lil, we are going to help you face yourself in the mirror. I love my friend Rick Wilson's stories about the early days. Oh my. You crossed the line of no return. You picked up a knife and stabbed the sacrifices of 13 generations of American patriots in the back for the cause of ambition. Our contempt for you is incandescent. I suspect the only thing Rick Wilson, Stuart Stevens, Reed Galen and the Lincoln Project share in common with you is a contempt matched only by your own self-loathing. Of course, it’s possible you share your masters’ sociopathy, and you have no shame at all. Either way, and trust me on this, we are going to brand you for all of eternity for what you are. One day, have no doubt about this, your grandchildren will deny your existence, as the offspring of collaborationists always do. Your shame and disgrace will be your legacy, and your descendants' eternal shame. The both of you, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, are latter day Fredo Corleones. The only exception being that when Fredo looked in a mirror, he saw a pimp. When the two of you look in the mirror, you see whores. Is there any line you two and Josh Hawley wouldn’t cross? Every man who loves this country looks at their sons and prays they don’t wind up like the three of you. You are villains by choice. But villains you are