The top strategist to Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign is calling out the Republican Party for not standing up to Donald Trump when it had the chance.
Steve Schmidt, who ran the day to day operations on McCain’s losing bid to Barack Obama, told “Hardball’s” Chris Matthews that Trump was given a free pass in his consistent questioning of President Obama’s birthplace.
“I said it was despicable then, it was wrong then, it undermined the legitimacy of the duly elected commander-in-chief. It was wrong and Republicans should have repudiated it,” Schmidt said. “We paid a price for it, and to some degree we are reaping what we sowed in a feckless political class that didn’t call it out.”
Trump has risen to the top of the Republican polls after a campaign launch that has veered oftentimes into viciousness, specifically targeting undocumented immigrants, the media, and campaign rivals.
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