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, attorneys for Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump threatened to sue the Lincoln Project if it did not remove two billboards in Times Square that highlight the Trump administration's gross mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. Schmidt responded to this threat on his Twitter account Saturday 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.
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America reads: Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
WE DO NOT LIVE IN TRUMPISTAN or JAVANKASTAN.
The billboards will remain because they light the night sky as a beacon of accountability and truth. The unqualified child of Trump and her husband were given jobs at the highest level of government and charged with life-and-death responsibilities.
They have engorged themselves for four years like pigs at the public trough. They have abused the taxpayers, flouted ethics and conflict-of-interest guidelines, rules and laws. They have enriched themselves with lucrative deals from foreign countries, while they were perched in the West Wing. They are both important architects and agents of this American catastrophe.
For the hundreds of thousands of dead Americans that should be alive but for the stupidity, incompetence, negligence, malfeasance and callous indifference of Trump and his regime of fools, to the caged children who may never see their parents again, we will fight.
LINCOLN PROJECT STATEMENT
The level of indignant outrage Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have shown towards The Lincoln Project for exposing their indifference for the more than 223,000 people who have lost their lives due to their reckless mismanagement of COVID-19 is comical. While we truly enjoy living rent free in their heads, their empty threats will not be taken any more seriously than we take Ivanka and Jared. It is unsurprising that an administration that has never had any regard or understanding of our Constitution would try to trample on our First Amendment rights, but we fully intend on making this civics lesson as painful as possible. Jared and Ivanka have always been entitled, out-of-touch bullies who have never given the slightest indication they have any regard for the American people. We plan on showing them the same level of respect. The billboards will stay up. We consider it important that in Times Square, the crossroads of the world, people are continuously reminded of the cruelty, audacity and staggering lack of empathy the Trumps and Kushners have displayed towards the American people.