Thread by @SteveSchmidtSES

.@MeghanMcCain Here is the story of the dumbest decision of my life. I had met briefly with Palin the night before along with another top staffer. We had agreed that we would not discuss anything around the vetting procedures that were being run by the vetting counsel and Rick

2/Davis per Ricks insistence. We focused primarily on her views around evolution. She lied and told us that her dad was a science teacher and she rejected creationism. This was a big thing to a bunch of us. It was simple really, if you believed that people and dinosaurs lived

3/ together -no go. It was called the Salter principle. We talked about the realities of the campaign and asked her if she would agree to abide by a structure if asked to serve. She looked me in the eye and said yes to everything and broke every promise.

4/ The next morning Palin’s SUV pulled into McCain’s Sedona property. McCain looked at me and another aide and said, “Let’s go boys, let’s go talk to her.” I said it was completely inappropriate for us to be in the meeting. I said it was his first Presidential decision and that

5/ he alone had to make the decision if she was qualified to take the Oath of Office. They went off and met alone. No one will ever have any knowledge about the inanities and nonsense that took place in the room that day. I do know that if I had heard her speak like I would as we

6/ were leaving Minneapolis, I would have tied myself to the bumper to have kept the car from leaving Sedona. Next we all walked down towards the river, John McCain, Cindi McCain, Mark Salter and I. Mark Salter had the best advice. He said it was a big risk and that he could

7/ Lose more than an election, that he could lose his reputation. I refused to advocate for a specific candidate. I told McCain it was a risk. I told him that I thought Pawlenty wouldn’t land and that the press would kill us over Romney because of all the shitty things they said

8/ about each other in the heat of the fight. I said that we were on track to lose and we needed to take a risk. Cindy said it was a gamble. John looked at her and pretended to roll dice like he was at a craps table. His hand splayed open. He said. “Fuck it, let’s do it”

9: The entire VP process, like everything else, was a mismanaged clusterfuck . It was the domain of the man I layered, Manaforts business partner and Yanukovych/ Deripaska adviser Davis. After every authority was removed from him except for the VP vetting I said the

10/ following to him in July after a disastrous Aspen meeting where it appeared the inherent disorganization of the campaign might mean we wouldn’t produce a VP by the Convention. It was a mess. I said the following to Davis “What about looking at Palin. She is the most

11/ popular Governor in America. “I said I didn’t know much about her and she would have to be as throughly vetted as Romney and Pawlenty. Rick said he would get the job done. The rest is history.

12/ John McCain walked into a room alone and picked Sarah Palin. I wasn’t there. He was the 72 year old Senior Senator from Arizona and the presumptive nominee for President. He wasn’t my ward and he wasn’t in a conservatorship. He had agency and control. His decision was

13/ idiotic, reckless and historic. I have taken the heat for 14 years over this stupidity. @MeghanMcCain Do you want to know who picked Palin? If you were to answer in typical fashion, the answer would be, “My Father” You have attacked, smeared and abused me for 14 years.

14/ You called me a pedophile. No more secrets between us.