Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, one of the GOP’s loudest critics of President Trump, renounced the party early Wednesday and announced that he will begin voting for Democrats.
Schmidt slammed Trump in a Twitter thread, saying he was leaving the party that once ended slavery.
{mosads}“29 years and nine months ago I registered to vote and became a member of The Republican Party which was founded in 1854 to oppose slavery and stand for the dignity of human life,” Schmidt tweeted.
“Today I renounce my membership in the Republican Party. It is fully the party of Trump,” he added.
The GOP has become “corrupt, indecent and immoral,” Schmidt added.
He specifically referenced the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy for illegal border crossings, which has led to the separation of parents and children during prosecution proceedings.
“This child separation policy is connected to the worst abuse of humanity in our history,” Schmidt wrote. “It is connected by the same evil that separated families during slavery and dislocated tribes and broke up Native American families. It is immoral and must be repudiated. Our country is in trouble. Our politics are badly broken.”
He also ripped Republican congressional leadership, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), for allowing the U.S. government to establish “internment camps for babies.”
“Everyone of these complicit leaders will carry this shame through history. There legacies will be ones of well earned ignominy. They have disgraced their country and brought dishonor to the Party of Lincoln,” the strategist wrote.
Schmidt, a former aide to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and an MSNBC analyst, has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration and his immigration policies.
He said Wednesday that the “GOP has become a danger to our democracy and values.”
“This Independent voter will be aligned with the only party left in America that stands for what is right and decent and remains fidelitous to our Republic, objective truth, the rule of law and our Allies. That party is the Democratic Party,” Schmidt wrote.
Schmidt called for a blue wave to bring back Democratic majorities in the midterm elections later this year.
“I do not say this as an advocate of a progressive agenda. I say it as someone who retains belief in DEMOCRACY and decency,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt is not the first Republican to condemn the party under the leadership of Trump.
Former GOP Rep. Charles Djou (Hawaii) announced in March that he was leaving the Republican Party due to Trump’s “hostile” immigration practices.
Former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said earlier this month that the GOP has been completely taken over by Trump.
“There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump party. The Republican Party is kinda taking a nap somewhere,” Boehner said.