Steve Schmidt Compares Trump to George Wallace, Asks if Supporters Are Prepared to ‘Execute Political Opponents’

Steve Schmidt compared former President Donald Trump to segregationists, and also questioned whether the former president’s supporters are willing to kill for him.

Schmidt joined MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell on The Last Word Monday to discuss the Trump rally in Arizona over the weekend. O’Donnell aired a number of clips from the rally in which speakers questioned the results of the 2020 election.

“That’s what we’re going to be seeing at all of these Trump rallies,” O’Donnell said.

Schmidt responded that he feels Trump is comparable to notorious segregationists, Gov. George Wallace and Sheriff Bull Connor:

We sure are, and it will only going to get crazier. Look, I think that the great deficiency, Lawrence, in this moment in America’s life and in the public square in American life is this singular fact: nobody knows what to call that. That thing that we just watched. What–what is that? How do we think about that in 2022? Is it fair to look at it and say that this is the legacy of, this is the descendant of a George Wallace rally. Is this the descendant of a Bull Connor rally? I think it is fair to say that in substantial measure.

The Lincoln Project co-founder added that he views Trump’s political movement as one that is both “fascist” and “autocratic.”

Schmidt said, “You saw one woman up there amongst the group of crazies talking about locking up election workers.”

Schmidt then wondered whether Trump supporters are willing to kill the former president’s opponents:

Are they prepared to execute political opponents when you look at the totality of the rhetoric? The intimations of violence. So what is this that we’re looking at? And what I think it is, is a very dangerous extremist movement that has come to life.

Watch above, via MSNBC.