The rise of Trump over the last decade in the Republican Party saw several prominent names leave the GOP, especially among the political consultant class who did not receive jobs in the Trump White House.
None may be more prominent than Steve Schmidt. John McCain’s campaign manager turned Trump critic has spent nearly a decade going after the GOP frontrunner. But now, Biden is receiving the Lincoln Project founder’s famous ire.
One of the most famous converts to the Democrats is furious about Biden’s insistence on staying in the race, writes The Daily Caller.
Biden has faced multiple calls to step aside as the Democratic nominee since a poor performance in a June 27 CNN debate with former President Donald Trump. Steve Schmidt, a one-time Republican strategist, said Biden’s team “gaslit America” in a rant on X, where he denied involvement in Pass the Torch PAC, a group running ads urging Biden to drop out.
“I’ve been a Democrat for 5 years and started a group that helped elect Biden by raising 100 million and running a brilliant campaign that did 3.2 billion in ad impact,” Schmidt posted in response to a post accusing him of supporting Pass the Torch. “The imbeciles who architected the current disaster said it was ineffective. LOL. Biden called to say thanks.”
During the 2020 campaign, Biden never explicitly said he would not run for a second term as president, but comments about being a “transitional” president were interpreted as implying he would only serve one term, the Hill reported last month.
“Then he broke his promise and his team gaslit America and Trump is going to win,” Schmidt said in a follow-on post, referencing efforts to dismiss concerns about Biden’s age. “In fact, he’ll win with a MAGA House and Senate.”
Schmidt’s anger at Trump has long been theorized to be about losing job opportunities following the MAGA champion’s rise to power. In 2020, The New York Post reported that Schmidt met with Donald Trump and tried to join his 2016 campaign.
“But the Republican operative — best known for his work on John McCain’s failed presidential bid before becoming one of the faces of the ‘Never Trump’ movement — failed to get the gig because Trump thought he was a ‘total idiot,’ one of the sources said.
Ten days after Schmidt’s March 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, the campaign hired Paul Manafort as chairman and eventually promoted him to campaign manager.”
The former president currently leads in all polling.
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