“In politics, it’s a battle, and you have to be a fighter.”

That’s the message from conservative stalwart and luminary Phyllis Schlafly. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller’s Special Correspondent Ginni Thomas, Schlafly, 88, voiced her doubts that the current Republican leadership is up to the job of combating their Democrat opponents.

“I’m afraid that some of them don’t want to be a fighter,” Schlafly said. “They want to have some kind of bi-partisan consensus and that’s not what we want. We want some significant changes… You have to have fighters, and I think they are not.”

Speaking about the RNC’s road map after the 2012 electoral defeat — which was often called an “autopsy” — Schlafly’s condemnation was swift: “I thought an autopsy was how you carve up a dead person to find out why he died. And I do not think the Republicans or conservatives are dead.”

In another segment of the interview, Schlafly discusses the problems of the Obama administration.

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