Political strategist Steve Schmidt says Democrats are bound for a congressional takeover in the midterms—but how they cripple President Donald Trump is what really matters.
“What Democrats have to appreciate is they have this tremendous victory that’s coming, that’s gonna give them control of the Senate and the House,” Schmidt, a former adviser to George W. Bush and the co-founder of The Lincoln Project and the Save America Movement, predicted on The Daily Beast Podcast.
But he cautioned: “They have not received this mandate because the American people have confidence in them.”
Schmidt, who became a Democrat in 2020 after leaving the Republican Party over Trump, argued that voters will hand Democrats control of Congress above all else to check what he called the 80-year-old president and his henchmen’s “depravity and corruption.”
“So where would you start? Where do you start cleaning house?” asked Hugh Dougherty, the Daily Beast’s executive editor.
Schmidt’s prescription was blunt: Democrats should replace New York Sen. Chuck Schumer as their Senate leader, then move immediately “to bring the checks and balances back to life.”
Republicans in Congress have acquiesced to Trump at every turn during the first half of his second term—from his tariffs and war to his funding cuts and unqualified political appointments. Schmidt said Democrats must restore Congress to its role as a “co-equal branch of government, co-equal to the president.”
“The first thing for the Senate Democrats under new leadership... to assert is that there will not be one Trump federal judge nominated who’s approved through the two years remaining in his term,” he said.
At the same time, Schmidt added, Democrats should immediately “open impeachment inquiries” into the president and his loyalists. He rattled off a list of Trump officials and allies Democrats should “gather evidence” on, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, U.S. attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro, and Trump’s legal enforcer-turned-federal Judge Emil Bove.
He argued there is a particular “urgent moral necessity to impeach” Hegseth, whom he called a “liar” who has “proselytized” and “politicized” the U.S. military, while also blasting his role in the quagmire of the war with Iran.
Those impeachment inquiries must go hand in hand with “oversight at every level,” including probes into Trump’s children, former Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and the administration’s moves against U.S. allies like Canada.
“The long and short of it is, Democrats need to use the full power... of the Constitution... that has given them the Article I branch of government,” Schmidt said. “Every corrupt deal, every email, every correspondence between Tim Cook and someone in the West Wing, go get it.”
He conceded that Republican loyalty makes removing Trump from office nearly impossible, but said Congress should nevertheless pass legislation that “restrains” the president even in the face of his veto power and “chaos in government.”
“I think it’s important for Democrats to realize nobody is voting for them to go up there and work with Donald Trump and find bipartisan common ground,” Schmidt said. “What we’re voting for them to do is to make this stop.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
New episodes of The Daily Beast Podcast are released every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday on YouTube, and on other podcast platforms the next morning. Follow our new feed on your favorite podcast platform at beast.pub/dailybeastpod and subscribe on YouTube to watch full episodes.
