Steve Schmidt: When Trust Dies, Democracy Follows
The Warning with Steve Schmidt
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 January 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
American government, media, and other fundamental democratic institutions have become corrupt under Trump’s regime. Steve Schmidt examines the systematic destruction of trust and urges Americans to hold their leaders accountable at the polls.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.3 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.3 | This is Steve Schmidt with the warning. |
| 0:05.6 | I just wanted to talk for a few minutes this morning about a very, very important subject, and that is trust. |
| 0:14.3 | It's total and absolute complete collapse between the American people and every institution that you can think to name. |
| 0:26.9 | The last holdout was the U.S. military. It was the most trusted institution in the country |
| 0:34.1 | until it was taken over by Pete Hegesseft and began extrajudicial |
| 0:41.5 | killings in the Southern Caribbean. A politicized Department of Defense will become distrusted. |
| 0:49.4 | For me, I know over my dead body, would I let my child sign the line to serve their country under the command of the indifference of Pete Hegeseth, who, when walking into a serious meeting in Ukraine, turned to an aide, and powdered his nose, and said, |
| 1:17.1 | we have to look commanding. Can't be made up. The politicians have become partners with the media. |
| 1:29.6 | And there is no place so where that is more so than CBS News, Barry Weiss News. |
| 1:38.7 | And on January 5th, they're going to reboot the CBS Evening news, and there will be a new anchor in place. |
| 1:47.7 | Tony DeCouple, a former hair model, who was sent by Barry Weiss to Grand Central Station with a sign, |
| 1:56.3 | the type of which the car service guys hold when you're waiting to get off a plane, |
| 2:01.7 | asking people how to pronounce his name. |
| 2:06.8 | It's a cutesy, millennial-ish marketing trick. |
| 2:11.7 | Might be great for Instagram, but the best part of it is as he's haranguing the commuters. |
| 2:19.2 | A woman looks them dead in the eye and she says, |
| 2:22.3 | are you running for office or something? |
| 2:24.8 | And he goes, no, |
| 2:26.4 | I'm the new anchor of CBS News, |
| 2:29.6 | you know, |
... |
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