Axelrod: Trump Indictments Have Made Him Look ‘Indomitable,’ ‘Strong,’ Resilient’

COLLINS: “Joining me now to talk about it, two friends of ‘The Source,’ former Republican congressman, Adam Kinzinger, and former senior adviser to President Obama, David Axelrod. David, I think some people, you know, if you looked at this six months ago, may have found it hard to believe that Trump was going to be in this position, you know, where he’s he’s getting these victories at the Supreme Court by delaying one thing. They’re also giving and giving him another victory and he’s about to have what — what’s expected to be a pretty good Super Tuesday.”
AXELROD: “No, no there’s, no doubt about it. And I’ll tell you something, Kaitlan, the thing that he’s selling in this race — and look, I think we have to stop and acknowledge the sort of moment that we’re in, where a guy who engineered an insurrection at the Capitol is on the verge of being his party’s nominee again, and I don’t want to in any way brush that point aside, but he is selling strength and in a weird way, all of these legal travails that he has, all these indictments, all of these lawsuits and so on, has given him a chance to look indomitable, look strong, look resilient, and that’s actually in some ways helped. Now, the main cases haven’t gone to trial yet, that could be a different story, but he’s actually used these to propel himself to this moment.”
COLLINS: “Yeah. What do you make of this moment, just after having been on the January 6 Committee investigating this, looking at every moment of this, and seeing today the court didn’t even touch the idea of whether or not he incited the insurrection.”
KINZINGER: “Well, after seeing his clip there, I just feel so unified now. Such a unifying factor Donald Trump is. (Laughter) No, I mean, it’s funny, so right after January 6, Fred Upton, who’s on this show sometimes, said to me, I think Donald Trump runs again.’ And I’m like, ‘Dude, no, you’re nuts. Like, there’s no way he runs again. Fred’s always right. That’s one thing I’ve learned.”
AXELROD: “He told me that, actually. (Laughs)”
KINZINGER: “Yeah. I mean, we always call them the Upton prophecies, because he would always be right. But we — but I still am in disbelief that we’re at this moment, you know, and I think part of it, when you’re talking about that strength, Donald Trump is actually truly the weakest man to ever occupy the presidency. That’s not just my opinion. I mean, he’s always a victim. I mean, even today he said, if that statement would have gone on longer, how he’s a victim and people are coming after him and poor him, but for some reason he’s really good at turning that into he’s the tough guy. So, yeah, I mean, and it’s worked. The party looks for strength. He’s projected fake strength. And I am still just blown away, as a Republican myself, that we’re at this moment, and I guess we just have to deal with it and make sure he doesn’t win the Oval Office again.”