Donald Trump’s supporters are not driven by a sense of “delusion,” but rather an authoritarian movement in the nation aimed at bringing down democracy itself, according to one of the most prominent former Republicans who led the fight to defeat Trump.

Many of Trump’s supporters are backing efforts to overturn President-elect Biden’s victory in the presidential election, including a new lawsuit launched by the state of Texas aiming to overturn results in several states Biden’s won.

“Look, again, we’re in a fight now between an autocratic movement and a democratic movement. And the only way to win a fight is either through submission or through exhaustion,” Steve Schmidt said in an on-air interview with MSNBC. “And here’s the deal. And this is what I would say to the people that Tim described as deluded. They are in a party that has let out of the underworld a mixture of conspiracy theorists, white nationalists, white supremacists, militia groups, and all of those people are part of their Trump coalition. They are in the mainstream of the Trump coalition.

“Groups like the Lincoln Project, our view is very simple. There is no compromise with these people. They must be driven back into the underworld of American politics. They have no place at the table,” said Schmidt, who served in the leadership of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project ahead of the election.

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