Former Obama adviser David Axelrod’s concerns about a second Donald Trump administration prompted him to hit back at a Republican insider during a back-and-forth exchange Friday evening that left Axelrod sarcastically remarking, “I actually took civics.”
The on-air moment happened on CNN’s “OutFront” after Axelrod expressed his worries amid reports that the Pentagon is preparing for a possible Trump order to deploy troops on Americans. Joining him in the discussion was former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY), who similarly expressed fears about Trump’s threat to terminate the Constitution and surround himself with administration officials who “submit to him.”
“What a ridiculous position to take – that anybody who goes into work for the president-elect does not believe in their oath to the Constitution, that the strictures will not be there,” said Machalagh Carr, former chief of staff to Speaker Kevin McCarthy. “I’m sorry maybe I have, perhaps, a little more faith in the United States Constitution than you do but the strictures will be there because it’s called the United States Constitution.”
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Carr continued her blistering pushback of the two Democrats’ comments by adding that it was “offensive” and “condescending" to assume a Trump White House employee “is going to bend the knee or to be some sort of subservient pawn,” before launching into a brief version of a civics lesson covering the separation of powers doctrine.
That didn’t appear to sit well with Axelrod, a former senior adviser to former President Barack Obama.
“I appreciate that, but I actually took civics, so I don't really need to be refreshed on it,” he said. “The reason that there are these concerns is because of what the president-elect has said that he would do that would fly in the face of that, and all the reports of the things he asked people to do that they refused to do because they were committed to the Constitution.”
Jones added that former high-level Trump White House officials including former Vice President Mike Pence, former Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly have warned about how Trump would act in a second term.
“So the gaslighting is inappropriate,” Jones told Carr.
“That’s just not true!” Carr said in response to Jones then saying that the U.S. Supreme Court gave Trump complete presidential immunity. “That is simply not true!”
Watch the clip below or at this link.