October 19, 2025 • 10 mins
The "No Kings Day" protests are an important part in the fight against Trump and his MAGA regime. Steve Schmidt sits down with Ezra Levin to discuss the goals of the "No Kings" movement and what reform and renewal look like in America.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What does reform and renewal for the country mean to you.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I think it means not just acting like none of
this happened and moving forward. I think one of the
greatest mistakes of the Biden administration was appointing Merrick Garland.
I think we missed an opportunity to actually hold accountable
those who committed crimes, including a violent insurrection that tried
to overturn a democratic election. I don't think we can
(00:30):
afford to forget and move on. I think we have
to contend with what we've gone through here in this
world that you're talking about, Steve. We've survived. We've built
a pro democracy movement that prevented a permanent authoritarian rule
in this country. That's incredible. We should celebrate what we've
accomplished as a country, and then we should implement the
(00:52):
kinds of reforms that are necessary to prevent that from
happening again anytime in the near future. We should be
thinking of a policy agenda into our twenty twenty nine
the way we would have thought of one after World
War two or after the Civil War. We've gone through
some shit together, We've survived. How do we build for
the new era, and so what I don't want to
see are warned over policy proposals from twenty sixteen or
(01:15):
twenty twelve and just moving on in that way. But
if I got to be honest, Steve, my head's not
in twenty twenty nine.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Right now.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I'm trying to live to fight another day. I'm looking
at how do we win this shutdown fight right now?
How do we win the elections in California and Virginia
and New Jersey and Pennsylvania three weeks from now, and
then how do we win a primary season in the
Democratic Party That should be about what is that party
going to be fighting for when they reteak power in
(01:44):
twenty twenty six at the end of the year. And
that should be a party that is in the fight
back faction of the party and not the rollover in
play dead faction at the party.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So again, I can't stress how impooring I think that
these protests are this weekend. I can't stress how much
I admired you for the leadership that you've exhibited in
this moment. I mean it, You're a You're a great
American patriot, and I have a question for you that
(02:19):
that I think we got to put on the table
to talk about because as you, as you lay out
everything is everything that you have said, I'm I'm a
complete violent agreement agreement on I look ahead and I
(02:42):
see you, I see a young guy, and I read
the story in Politico about your analogue, which is which
is all these young Republicans in the I love Hitler,
Maggot crowd, and I see this disease. I see this
(03:04):
cancer right that's forming. Jade Vance is asked to respond
to all of these Republicans. They're all in the picture
back in. Any national leader with any moral foundation should
dress that in a very serious way, and of course
(03:27):
Jadie Vance is not that, so he doesn't. And he
points a finger at the Democratic nominee for Attorney General
in Virginia, who is running in a moment when the
rule of law is under siege and assault. We have
Banana Republican prosecutions take a place, including from Virginia, and
(03:51):
the Democratic Party has nominated someone that has put out
all of these emails, these tags that have come out
that are basically I want to shoot the Republican speaker
in the head, I want to kill his I want
to kill his kids, and YadA, YadA, YadA, YadA, And
(04:12):
to me, that person, this is an easy decision in
the pro democracy fight. Take his ass up, boom, over
the rail into the ocean. I don't want to defend him.
I have no investment in that person. I think he's
a whack job that is an agent of a terrible cause.
(04:38):
In the end, he is a booster rocket for MAGA
and there should be zero tolerance for him on our side.
And what I would put to you is you're a
leader of the American opposition, not a leader in the
(04:58):
Democratic Party, And so how do you process all of
this as a leader in the American opposition that obviously
in the two party system, the Democrats are guys so
to speak, if we're opposed to this, But at the
same time, it's also the institution the lost to Donald Trump.
(05:20):
And I know for my part, you know, as a
person who's involved in one of that cluster of groups,
I am completely against signing up for another pickets charge
or led by the saint people who've lost two out
of the last three elections to the Donald Trump. But
(05:42):
how do you factor all of that into this? As
every Democratic leader is looking at these protests this weekend
and saying, right, if they're Chuck Schumer, Oh this is
for me. No, it's not. It's about something else. And
(06:06):
so there's a lot of people trying to get on
to the south right. But what are you saying, how
do you see all that?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Well, I think you're exactly right that this is not
a Democratic Party movement. Indivisible as an organization has never
been an arm of the Democratic Party. And in March,
after Trump, or after Trump successfully bullied Schumer into surrendering
on the previous Republican funding bill, we held an emergency
(06:36):
meeting of thirteen hundred Indivisible leaders from around the country.
Ninety two percent of them voted for US to call
for Chuck Schumer to step down from leadership because he
had frittered away what little leverage he had up until
this point. Now, the six months later, we have a
cee our bill again. I think the reason why you
see Schumer and the other Democrats fighting now is because
in the intervening months since that point, they have been
(07:00):
absolutely demolished by rank and file, THEMS and grassroots members.
This isn't ideological, This isn't the left versus the center,
or the left versus the conservatis. This is normal everyday
Democrats who said, what the hell, why aren't you using
your leverage? And they are being pushed, and they're showing
up on Hands Off in April, and they're showing up
on No Kings in June, and they're showing up in
bigger numbers in No Kings two in a few days,
(07:24):
and Democrats are scared that they're going to be tossed
out unless they respond in some way. I think what
we need to do is be really hard on our
leaders and not allow them to get away with just
performative gestures. And this is something we saw shortly after
the hands off protests and the no Kings protests originally
is a lot of dims who were in the rollover
(07:46):
and play dead category said, oh my gosh, the rank
and file are really pissed off right now. We should
send some strongly worded letters to show that we're on
the same side. We should give some inspiring speeches. We
should cuss more. There should be more cursing to demonstrate
how pissed off we are. I think there was an
actual memo that went around that commits them to do that,
and I'm not going to lie. I like a good speech.
(08:08):
I like a good rant with some cursing about what
Trump is doing. I think that's a step in the
right direction. That's better than condescending dismissal. But what we're
looking for is a party that fights back and a
party that's serious about standing up for democratic values. So
I think it is easy to call that out. Is
easy for me to sit here and say this Democratic
(08:29):
leader failed, that Democratic leader failed. I want the party
to do X. Why aren't they doing it? Why are
they disappointing me so much? But the Democratic Party is
what we make of it. It is what we demand.
We get the party that we demand, and I think
we should take advantage of the opportunity in front of
us to demand a party that actually fights back and
(08:51):
represents a serious opposition to authoritarianism in this country. The
most immediate opportunity I see for that is the primary
season that's coming now. We are going to have primaries
for Congress, for the Senate, for state legislatures all over
the country, and we can accept the same old leadership
that we've had, or we can go and withhold our
(09:12):
money and our votes and our attention from those who
are part of the old field version of this party.
I think I'm happy to talk about that. We're not
involved at the state race in Virginia, the lieutenant governor's race.
I think it's atrocious what he did. I think it's
extremely damaging. And we're also in the general election against
the Fascist Party, so I would like to see some
(09:34):
serious contrition. I would like to see him clean it
up as much as possible. And also, given limited capacity
that we have, I'm putting a lot more energy into
Proposition fifty in California to fight back against Jerry Mannery,
and put a lot more energy in the three Pennsylvania
Supreme Court races, which could be determinative on whether we
have free and fair elections in twenty six and twenty eight.
And I'm putting more energy in the New Jersey governor's
(09:56):
race in the Virginia's governor's race.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning. I invite you
to join this community where I promise to be honest,
blunt and direct about what is happening in this country.
America is in crisis. Follow and subscribe to this channel
and on substack. Thank you
What does reform and renewal for the country mean to you.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I think it means not just acting like none of
this happened and moving forward. I think one of the
greatest mistakes of the Biden administration was appointing Merrick Garland.
I think we missed an opportunity to actually hold accountable
those who committed crimes, including a violent insurrection that tried
to overturn a democratic election. I don't think we can
(00:30):
afford to forget and move on. I think we have
to contend with what we've gone through here in this
world that you're talking about, Steve. We've survived. We've built
a pro democracy movement that prevented a permanent authoritarian rule
in this country. That's incredible. We should celebrate what we've
accomplished as a country, and then we should implement the
(00:52):
kinds of reforms that are necessary to prevent that from
happening again anytime in the near future. We should be
thinking of a policy agenda into our twenty twenty nine
the way we would have thought of one after World
War two or after the Civil War. We've gone through
some shit together, We've survived. How do we build for
the new era, and so what I don't want to
see are warned over policy proposals from twenty sixteen or
(01:15):
twenty twelve and just moving on in that way. But
if I got to be honest, Steve, my head's not
in twenty twenty nine.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Right now.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I'm trying to live to fight another day. I'm looking
at how do we win this shutdown fight right now?
How do we win the elections in California and Virginia
and New Jersey and Pennsylvania three weeks from now, and
then how do we win a primary season in the
Democratic Party That should be about what is that party
going to be fighting for when they reteak power in
(01:44):
twenty twenty six at the end of the year. And
that should be a party that is in the fight
back faction of the party and not the rollover in
play dead faction at the party.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So again, I can't stress how impooring I think that
these protests are this weekend. I can't stress how much
I admired you for the leadership that you've exhibited in
this moment. I mean it, You're a You're a great
American patriot, and I have a question for you that
(02:19):
that I think we got to put on the table
to talk about because as you, as you lay out
everything is everything that you have said, I'm I'm a
complete violent agreement agreement on I look ahead and I
(02:42):
see you, I see a young guy, and I read
the story in Politico about your analogue, which is which
is all these young Republicans in the I love Hitler,
Maggot crowd, and I see this disease. I see this
(03:04):
cancer right that's forming. Jade Vance is asked to respond
to all of these Republicans. They're all in the picture
back in. Any national leader with any moral foundation should
dress that in a very serious way, and of course
(03:27):
Jadie Vance is not that, so he doesn't. And he
points a finger at the Democratic nominee for Attorney General
in Virginia, who is running in a moment when the
rule of law is under siege and assault. We have
Banana Republican prosecutions take a place, including from Virginia, and
(03:51):
the Democratic Party has nominated someone that has put out
all of these emails, these tags that have come out
that are basically I want to shoot the Republican speaker
in the head, I want to kill his I want
to kill his kids, and YadA, YadA, YadA, YadA, And
(04:12):
to me, that person, this is an easy decision in
the pro democracy fight. Take his ass up, boom, over
the rail into the ocean. I don't want to defend him.
I have no investment in that person. I think he's
a whack job that is an agent of a terrible cause.
(04:38):
In the end, he is a booster rocket for MAGA
and there should be zero tolerance for him on our side.
And what I would put to you is you're a
leader of the American opposition, not a leader in the
(04:58):
Democratic Party, And so how do you process all of
this as a leader in the American opposition that obviously
in the two party system, the Democrats are guys so
to speak, if we're opposed to this, But at the
same time, it's also the institution the lost to Donald Trump.
(05:20):
And I know for my part, you know, as a
person who's involved in one of that cluster of groups,
I am completely against signing up for another pickets charge
or led by the saint people who've lost two out
of the last three elections to the Donald Trump. But
(05:42):
how do you factor all of that into this? As
every Democratic leader is looking at these protests this weekend
and saying, right, if they're Chuck Schumer, Oh this is
for me. No, it's not. It's about something else. And
(06:06):
so there's a lot of people trying to get on
to the south right. But what are you saying, how
do you see all that?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Well, I think you're exactly right that this is not
a Democratic Party movement. Indivisible as an organization has never
been an arm of the Democratic Party. And in March,
after Trump, or after Trump successfully bullied Schumer into surrendering
on the previous Republican funding bill, we held an emergency
(06:36):
meeting of thirteen hundred Indivisible leaders from around the country.
Ninety two percent of them voted for US to call
for Chuck Schumer to step down from leadership because he
had frittered away what little leverage he had up until
this point. Now, the six months later, we have a
cee our bill again. I think the reason why you
see Schumer and the other Democrats fighting now is because
in the intervening months since that point, they have been
(07:00):
absolutely demolished by rank and file, THEMS and grassroots members.
This isn't ideological, This isn't the left versus the center,
or the left versus the conservatis. This is normal everyday
Democrats who said, what the hell, why aren't you using
your leverage? And they are being pushed, and they're showing
up on Hands Off in April, and they're showing up
on No Kings in June, and they're showing up in
bigger numbers in No Kings two in a few days,
(07:24):
and Democrats are scared that they're going to be tossed
out unless they respond in some way. I think what
we need to do is be really hard on our
leaders and not allow them to get away with just
performative gestures. And this is something we saw shortly after
the hands off protests and the no Kings protests originally
is a lot of dims who were in the rollover
(07:46):
and play dead category said, oh my gosh, the rank
and file are really pissed off right now. We should
send some strongly worded letters to show that we're on
the same side. We should give some inspiring speeches. We
should cuss more. There should be more cursing to demonstrate
how pissed off we are. I think there was an
actual memo that went around that commits them to do that,
and I'm not going to lie. I like a good speech.
(08:08):
I like a good rant with some cursing about what
Trump is doing. I think that's a step in the
right direction. That's better than condescending dismissal. But what we're
looking for is a party that fights back and a
party that's serious about standing up for democratic values. So
I think it is easy to call that out. Is
easy for me to sit here and say this Democratic
(08:29):
leader failed, that Democratic leader failed. I want the party
to do X. Why aren't they doing it? Why are
they disappointing me so much? But the Democratic Party is
what we make of it. It is what we demand.
We get the party that we demand, and I think
we should take advantage of the opportunity in front of
us to demand a party that actually fights back and
(08:51):
represents a serious opposition to authoritarianism in this country. The
most immediate opportunity I see for that is the primary
season that's coming now. We are going to have primaries
for Congress, for the Senate, for state legislatures all over
the country, and we can accept the same old leadership
that we've had, or we can go and withhold our
(09:12):
money and our votes and our attention from those who
are part of the old field version of this party.
I think I'm happy to talk about that. We're not
involved at the state race in Virginia, the lieutenant governor's race.
I think it's atrocious what he did. I think it's
extremely damaging. And we're also in the general election against
the Fascist Party, so I would like to see some
(09:34):
serious contrition. I would like to see him clean it
up as much as possible. And also, given limited capacity
that we have, I'm putting a lot more energy into
Proposition fifty in California to fight back against Jerry Mannery,
and put a lot more energy in the three Pennsylvania
Supreme Court races, which could be determinative on whether we
have free and fair elections in twenty six and twenty eight.
And I'm putting more energy in the New Jersey governor's
(09:56):
race in the Virginia's governor's race.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning. I invite you
to join this community where I promise to be honest,
blunt and direct about what is happening in this country.
America is in crisis. Follow and subscribe to this channel
and on substack. Thank you
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