Former partners-in-crime Nicolle Wallace and Steve Schmidt (who once teamed up in an effort to elect Sarah Palin vice president) went at it Wednesday afternoon over Schmidt’s decision to support the candidacy of Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, which resulted in a furious Wallace telling Schmidt that “people are terrified” he’ll help re-elect Donald Trump.

As part of a contentious debate on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, Wallace asked Schmidt “Why can’t someone like Schultz go in and try to win inside a Democratic primary and change the party to be more centrist?”

Schmidt countered by noting that “when we look at the American constitution, there is no mention of political parties,” and that George Washington warned about political parties in his farewell address.

“Listen, you can out-history me asleep better than I can awake,” Wallace said, “but my point is, we have never — it is a — people are terrified, and people are terrified that you, one of the most visible Trump critics, are now behind someone they feel like can take away the Democrats’ best chance of toppling Donald Trump.”

“Nobody is voting. The election is two years away,” Schmidt replied.

“We’re already scared!” Wallace exclaimed.

The Schmidt run, if nothing else, has proven the reverse of the old adage, and has managed to unmake several sets of political bedfellows. It was all fun and games when Wallace and Schmidt were taking turns verbally flogging Trump like Orcas dining on a harp seal, but not so much now that Schmidt is trying to find a “centrist” path between treating immigrants “like slaves at auction” and not doing that.

And former Obama deputy press secretary Bill Burton has seen his goodwill with Democratic supporters dry up like Sen. Marco Rubio‘s (R-FL) throat over his decision to advise Schultz.

Maybe Wallace is worried over nothing. If Schultz’s candidacy is anything like his coffee shops, people will just end up writing in Harold Skullz and dropping a mean deuce in the voting booth.

Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.

from Mediaite http://bit.ly/2RVWAlE