In an interview with CNN over the weekend, one of former President Barack Obama’s top political advisors noted that, should Donald Trump lose to Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2018 election, the “stakes are high.”
In an interview with CNN anchor Michael Smerconish, David Axelrod stated that if Trump loses, he will have to deal with a number of unresolved legal matters.
“David, I have had callers to my radio program question whether he‘s trying to lose it, whether he‘s trying to tank it and my response is to say his liberty interest is on the line. This is a guy who for his own freedom and for financial reasons, he needs to win this race,” Smerconish said to begin the segment.
“Well I think that‘s part of the problem, Michael, I think he is, you know, the stakes for him are much larger than for any normal candidate because the consequences of a defeat is that he‘s going to have to face the bar of justice here and he thought he had beaten it. He thought that he had won,” Axelrod began.
“When we were in Milwaukee, the talk there was of landslide, and…it was it felt like they were talking about the terms of surrender that they were going to demand, and he was very he felt very serene that he had beaten this,” Axelrod continued.
“Now, all of a sudden, his life is flashing before his eyes, and I think it‘s one of the things that‘s unsettling him. But, you know, they sent them out yesterday to do a press conference two days ago about the economy, and his big challenge is to make her the incumbent and not the turn-the-page candidate, and he wants to Link her to Biden in a way that will make her the incumbent, and that was what the press conference was all about and instead, he blew himself up and spent 10 minutes on his legal problems and lashing out at in other places,” the former Obama adviser continued.
“And he overwhelmed the message of his own press conference. He is not a competent candidate right now, and one of the questions about this debate is, is that the guy who‘s going to step on the debate stage, because if it is, they’ve got a world of hurt,” he added.
Trump startled a lot of people at his first debate with President Joe Biden with his level-headed demeanor, deft question handling, and composure. Nevertheless, in order to help him get ready for his debate with Harris, which is set for September 10 on ABC in Philadelphia, he has brought in some extra “talent.”
According to The New York Times, the former president has asked former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, Tulsi Gabbard, for help in preparing for the discussion.
Many are familiar with Gabbard from her numerous appearances on Fox News. She was a Democratic lawmaker before switching to independence shortly after her 2020 presidential campaign. However, some people might not recall how thoroughly Hillary destroyed the vice president in the 2020 Democratic Primary Debate.
“Senator Harris says she’s proud of her record as a prosecutor and that she’ll be a prosecutor president, but I’m deeply concerned about this record,” she said during the debate, which many believe was the death knell for the 2020 Harris campaign. “There are too many examples to cite, but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.”
“She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so,” Gabbard said to a visibly uncomfortable Harris. “She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California, and she fought to keep a cash bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way.”
