Steve Schmidt, formerly the campaign manager for the 2008 McCain-Palin presidential campaign and now an MSNBC contributor, gave low marks to the Republican Party for its convention, which began earlier in the night.
Schmidt saved his strongest criticisms for the GOP’s platform, telling “The 11th Hour” host Brian Williams he saw it as a “devotion” to President Donald Trump, the party’s nominee.
“This is what propaganda looks like, and we shouldn’t discount its effectiveness. You know, the Republican Party has fully become a cult of personality. There’s not even a pretense of a party platform. The party platform is veneration of, completion devotion to, and obedience to Donald Trump. That’s what the party platform is. And so in the alternate reality universe — and Nicolle Wallace was exactly right when you heard her observations on the last panel, talking about this is a president who’s not secure with his base.”
“And so they’re trying to convince the base, I think by repetition, by the audaciousness of the lie, that he’s handled this adroitly, that he’s been effective,” Schmidt continued. “You know, he talked about banning travel from china. In fact, 40,000 people came in from China after that ban was invoked by the president. So, look, it’s all gaslighting. It’s all nonsense. None of it is true. There are people who will believe it, but thankfully we know they’re a minority of the country.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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