--- title: Steve Schmidt Quits the GOP Over Family Separation Policy description: Longtime consultant Steve Schmidt criticized the Trump Administration's family separation policy and announced he would quit the GOP. canonical: https://time.com/5319120/steve-schmidt-republican-party/ author: Abby Vesoulis article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-21T21:28:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:01.139Z article:section: Politics og:title: Steve Schmidt Helped Run Republican Campaigns for Years. Here's Why He Quit the GOP og:description: "I'll have no part in it." og:url: https://time.com/5319120/steve-schmidt-republican-party/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8be40254ab68ace/6989339d0a4a229ac99d3046/steve-schmidt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: "Game Change" Washington, DC Premiere og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Steve Schmidt Helped Run Republican Campaigns for Years. Here's Why He Quit the GOP twitter:description: "I'll have no part in it." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8be40254ab68ace/6989339d0a4a229ac99d3046/steve-schmidt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Steve Schmidt Helped Run Republican Campaigns for Years. Here's Why He Quit the GOP > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=45a020ad-2adb-4817-9a40-758f841c86fe&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: John Moore on Photographing Asylum-Seekers at the U.S. Border [Watch (HLS stream): John Moore on Photographing Asylum-Seekers at the U.S. Border](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HCdlKNqR.m3u8) (2:39)  _Published 2018-06-20. Photojournalist John Moore recently took a viral photo of a girl crying as her mother is searched at the border. He explains the circumstances around the newsworthy photo._  by [Abby Vesoulis](https://time.com/author/abby-vesoulis/)  ## Abby Vesoulis Jun 21, 2018 9:28 PM UTC  Steve Schmidt speaks with a reporter during the "Game Change" premiere at The Newseum on March 8, 2012 in Washington, DC. Steve Schmidt speaks with a reporter during the "Game Change" premiere at The Newseum on March 8, 2012 in Washington, DC. Kris Connor—Getty Images  by [Abby Vesoulis](https://time.com/author/abby-vesoulis/)  ## Abby Vesoulis Jun 21, 2018 9:28 PM UTC Steve Schmidt turned heads when he quit the Republican Party this week. After all, he had helped run George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, managed John McCain’s in 2008 and helped get John Roberts and Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court. But there had been signs for a while that Schmidt no longer felt at home in the party of Donald Trump. Since the tumultuous 2016 election, Schmidt has publicly [blamed](https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/996501402171183105) Trump for destabilizing the Middle East, likened his policies to those of the [Nazi Party](https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1008388894423994373), blasted Trump for his [attacks on ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/06/07/trump-to-see-national-security-threat-in-canada-firsthand/)[Canada](https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1002365249104826368) and criticized the idea that trade wars are [“easy to win.”](http://time.com/5182460/donald-trump-trade-wars-tweets/) But it was Trump’s family separation policy that pushed him over the edge. In [tweets](https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1009325231004004352) that went viral on Wednesday, Schmidt criticized the Trump Administration’s [policy of separating parents and children caught crossing the border](http://time.com/5314769/family-separation-policy-donald-trump/) as “evil” and “immoral” and argued that Republican lawmakers who failed to repudiate the president were “feckless cowards who disgrace and dishonor the legacies of the party’s greatest leaders.” In an interview with TIME Thursday, Schmidt said he was done with the GOP. “I’ll have no part in it,” he said. But Schmidt is clear that his ire is not with Trump alone. Though he frequently disavowed Trump in the months leading up to and since his election, once [comparing](http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/367583-gop-strategist-compares-trump-team-to-monkeys-hurling-their) his administration to monkeys, Schmidt’s main concern since Trump took over the Oval Office has been the failure of Republican leaders to stand up to him. “What destroyed the Republican Party isn’t Trump. It’s the obedience to Trump from servile leaders like McConnell and Ryan who could have put a check on him,” Schmidt said. “They have gotten their place in political history. They’ll be remembered as vile.” Schmidt cited many reasons for abandoning the party, including antiquated party positions on gay marriage, Trump’s [verbal assault](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/10/world/canada/g-7-justin-trudeau-trump.html) on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his [praise](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/24/trump-praise-kim-jong-un-547610) of North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un. But most damning, he said, were the [horrific images](http://time.com/longform/john-moore-getty-photo-separation/) of parents being separated from their children at the border and the policies that led to their existence. “We are looking at policies of profound cruelty that are reminiscent of the most disgraceful chapters in the history of the country,” Schmidt said, comparing the [decision to jail and prosecute](http://time.com/5315609/family-separation-policy-trump-doubles-down/) every illegal immigrant who crosses the border — which therefore separates families — to breaking up families being sold into slavery, marching Native Americans off their own land and harboring Japanese-Americans in [internment camps](http://time.com/5318725/family-separation-policy-japanese-internment-camp-norman-mineta/) in the 1940s. “There is no redemption here,” he said of the future of the GOP. Still, while he said he will be voting for Democrats in the near future in order to curb Trump’s power, he said he won’t pledge his allegiance to the Democratic Party and will instead register as an independent. “\[The Democratic Party\] is an institution I respect. It’s an institution that has created many great leaders. But I’m not particularly aligned with the Democratic Party’s policy agenda,” Schmidt said. However, he is “absolutely aligned with the party’s commitment and fidelity to democracy.” He argued that Democrats are the only way right now to protect American democracy. “I profoundly believe that the Democratic Party is the only vehicle we have to put a check on Donald Trump,” Schmidt said. “If there is not a repudiation of Trumpism delivered this November, we’re going to be living in a very different America than the one that everyone has been living in for the previous 240 years.” That’s why, at least for now, the Democrats will have his vote. “I’ll be as supportive as I can to Democratic candidates who are running to displace this corruptive Republican majority,” he said. ## Transcript I was with the border patrol agent and we were on the US side of the Rio Grande and I was watching as rafts of asylum seekers came across and so after some time, the agent and I went back to his vehicle. And began to drive out. And that's where we came across a group of maybe two dozen women and children walking alongside the road. And the border patrol agent, he shined his spotlight on them. You could see the fear frankly in their eyes. And I noticed in the crowd of people A mother holding a young girls and the mother would not set her down, and the girl wanted to be held the whole time. I spoke briefly with the mother, and she said that they'd come from Honduras, and they; d been travelling for a month. When it came to her turn to be searched, the agents, they asked her to set down her child And in that moment as soon as the little girl's feet touched the ground, she started screaming. She was crying and it was a very acute case of separation anxiety happening in front of me. And as she looked up at her mother being searched I photographed her just for a few seconds. There were just very few pictures before it was all over and they were packed away into the van and driven off. [ MUSIC ] The border patrol hands them off to a private contractor, which is called the GEO group. The GEO group runs a network of private prisons In the US and GEO transports them to the processing center where we know that many children are separated from their parents. In the case of this girl and her mother, I did not know what would happen to them. I photographed many times Families seeking political asylum. Photographing this for me was very different this time, because although the families didn't know what was coming next, I did. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] I've had the opportunity to witness a lot of history. And we hope that we can make people feel with all of our pictures, but some of them are more effective than others. 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