Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt called out his old party for “lying” about President Donald Trump’s actions toward Ukraine to distract from an “unprecedented” extortion scheme.
Schmidt appeared Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to make predictions about the upcoming public impeachment hearings, and he said witnesses would tell a tale of sordid corruption.
“The American people will see when this begins to play out publicly is an act of corruption unprecedented in its magnitude and its severity,” Schmidt said. “What we see is the president of the United States extorting a foreign head of state, withholding congressionally approved military assistance to a nation that has a hot war with the Russians on the eastern front, for the purposes of getting dirt on the president’s political opponent.”
“There has never been in the entire post-World War II period of history, from Truman through Obama until Trump, there has never been an act of corruption by an American president quite like this,” he added. “It is extraordinary and severe.”
“The American people will see when this begins to play out publicly is an act of corruption unprecedented in its magnitude and its severity,” Schmidt said. “What we see is the president of the United States extorting a foreign head of state, withholding congressionally approved military assistance to a nation that has a hot war with the Russians on the eastern front, for the purposes of getting dirt on the president’s political opponent.”
“There has never been in the entire post-World War II period of history, from Truman through Obama until Trump, there has never been an act of corruption by an American president quite like this,” he added. “It is extraordinary and severe.”