EXCERPT:
SCHMIDT: “I think there’s no question that the country and the media is numb to it. The threshold in this moment is very simple. Everything that Donald Trump says should be taken literally and seriously. What he did today was threaten the employees, the journalists at NBC News. What he said more broadly is he’s going to shut down the free media in the United States. What he announced today as a candidate for president in 2023 is he’s coming after the American media. He’s coming after his political opponents. Why is he running for president? He’s running for retribution. Retribution, according to Donald Trump, is a philosophy of avenging anybody who was against him. So we are on the edge of an abyss in this country, and it seems that there is a paralysis, a numbness, a total disregard for the clear and present threat.”