Senator Eric Schmitt, a Republican from Missouri, during the Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 16, 2024. (Al Drago)
"The fact of the matter is, what our fights were, were about restoring individual liberty and pulling back the expanse of government," Schmitt told Fox News Digital in an interview. "What the Left is trying to do now with their lawfare machine was, number one, they're trying to put their opponents in jail, but then also to defend the expanse of government, to defend the administrative state. And I think if we have the right arguments, we can win."
Schmitt detailed how to secure those winning arguments through his own experiences in his latest book "The Last Line of Defense: How to Beat the Left in Court."
He described the book as "a field manual from the front lines of the battles that were fought against the left-wing law machine." Indeed, Schmitt outlined a guide for attorneys general across the country to take on challenges at all levels, from local to federal.
"Our playbook really is … really in response to what their playbook was, to create a manufactured emergency, a real or manufactured emergency, to aggregate power, to exercise it in ways that never were imagined to other folks who disagree and silence dissent," Schmitt said. "That's what they were really trying to do."
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is sworn-in before testifying before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic at the Rayburn House Office Building on June 3, 2024, in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
"He wanted to silence anybody who talked about it being a lab leak," Schmitt said. "Which, of course, we know is that's exactly what it was now. It wasn't some bat mating with a penguin, you know, this was actually in the Wuhan Institute of Virology is where this thing came from."
Schmitt, who is a fan of both former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas — particularly Scalia’s usage of originalism, or interpreting the Constitution as it was written rather than as a living document — noted in the book that there has been a "complete shift" in the courts.
In particular, conservative-leaning justices have the majority on the Supreme Court, and courts across the country are being filled, albeit slowly, with President Donald Trump’s picks.
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When asked if he was at all concerned about partisan politicking coming to the bench, Schmitt countered that courts are returning to a legal system that had been "disrupted by the progressive era, beginning with Woodrow Wilson and the rise of the administrative state, FDR, who threatened to pack the court."
"The Constitution means exactly what it says, nothing more, nothing less, just like our laws," he said. "They mean what they say, nothing more, nothing less."
"I don't want a judge to necessarily agree with my politics," he continued. "I just want a judge to adhere to the Constitution."
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/conservative-playbook-beat-democrats-court-outlined-senators-new-book