Steve Schmidt was on ‘Meet The Press’ today and at one point in discussing the overall impact of the latest news on Donald Trump, Schmidt spoke some hard truths about the Trump candidacy and in particular, the effect it has had on the GOP.

If you’re somebody who thinks what Trump is doing is good for the GOP, you’re not going to want to watch this. But the sobering reality is, Schmidt is right. There is an “intellectual rot” within the Republican Party and sooner or later a true leader has to emerge on the national level in order bring the Republican Party back to semblance of respectability.

Check it out:

Transcript:

When we, when we look at this– When we look at where this race is today, the Presidential race is effectively over. Hillary Rodham Clinton will be the 45th President of the United States. Chuck Schumer will be the Majority Leader of the United States Senate.

And the only question that’s still up in the air is how close the Democrats will come to retaking the House Majority. What this exposes, though, is much deeper and it goes to the Republican Party as an institution. This, this candidacy, the magnitude of its disgrace to the country is almost impossible, I think, to articulate. But it has exposed the intellectual rot in the Republican Party. It has exposed at a massive level the hypocrisy, the modern day money changers in the temple like Jerry Falwell Jr. And so, this party, to go forward and to represent a conservative vision for America, has great soul searching to do. And what we’ve seen and the danger for all of these candidates is over the course of the last year, these, these candidates who have repeatedly put their party ahead of their country, denying what is so obviously clear to anybody who’s watching about his complete and total manifest unfitness for this office.

Again, it’s harsh. But fair.

Most of all, he’s right.