Steve Schmidt, cofounder of the disgraced Lincoln Project and former presidential campaign manager for the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), admitted Friday that he did not actually vote for McCain in the 2008 election, won by Barack Obama.

Politico reported Friday:

He also told us something he’s never revealed before: his disillusionment with McCain was so deep by the end of the 2008 campaign that he didn’t think McCain should be in the White House.

“The only conceivable conclusion that you could get to after watching his conduct in this campaign was that he’s completely unfit to be president,” Schmidt told us. “Truth is, I didn’t vote for him either.”

He left the presidential line on his 2008 ballot blank.

Schmidt was tapped by McCain after the “maverick” Republican Senator lost a host of key staffers in mid-2007, and refused to give up. McCain’s stance in favor of the “surge” in the Iraq War contrasted sharply with the view of most other candidates.

But over time, as it became clear that the surge had worked, both in stabilizing Iraq and reducing American casualties, GOP primary voters began to reward McCain for his courage and consistency, choosing him over Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. When Democratic Party primary voters rejected then-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) for then-Sen. Obama (D-IL), McCain, who made a career out of dissenting from his party, became the unlikely last line of defense against the far left.

Thousands of volunteers trudged through the country canvassing for McCain in swing states, and the campaign seemed to have a chance — especially after the nomination of then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) as McCain’s running mate brought grass roots conservatives on board. The sudden global financial collapse in mid-September 2008, however, likely doomed the campaign, as did McCain’s decision to suspend his efforts and rush back to Washington to vote on a Wall Street bailout.

Schmidt, whom McCain elevated from obscurity, has used his role in the 2008 election as his calling card, both as a political consultant and a commentator on cable news. His past was useful to the Lincoln Project, which cast itself as a dissenting group of Republicans who opposed Trump to save their party, though the project backed Democrats in other races as well.

The Lincoln Project fell into disrepute over allegations of sexual abuse by young men against co-founder John Weaver.

Schmidt is widely blamed for undermining Palin in the closing days of the campaign, when she stumbled in contentious interviews with establishment media outlets, though she drew large rally crowds and performed well against then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) in the vice presidential debate. His comments to Politico came after a week of extensive tweets and comments, including the admission that he lied about McCain’s alleged affair with a lobbyist during the 2008 primary.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.