Following former Vice President Mike Pence's criticism of former President Donald Trump at the Gridiron dinner, Trump hit back, mocking Pence's poor performance in the presidential primary polls and even suggesting January 6 was really his fault for not objecting to the election results.
It's this latter line, argued Lincoln Project strategist Tara Setmayer on MSNBC's "The Reidout" on Monday, that actually incriminates Trump even further.
"Donald Trump has ... responded to Mike Pence's remarks at the Gridiron, and this is what he said he said. He blames Pence for January 6th. Had he sent the vote back to the legislators, they wouldn't have had a problem with January 6th, so in many ways you can blame him for January 6th. Basically admitting that that was the purpose of the mob," said anchor Joy Reid. "So Trump is basically saying, yeah, that mob was there to kill you if he didn't give me the election, and the proof is they came to get you. And if I'm a Department of Justice lawyer, I'm writing that down."
"Doesn't Trump always do that? He always admits to the crime," said Setmayer. "And he turns it around and blames everybody else. It's always about projection. He's been saying this and blaming Pence since January 6th and prior to that. I mean, it was the Lincoln Project that put out the ad after the election that let Trump know, by the way, (that) Mike Pence is the one that's actually going to seal your fate here. You lost the election and Pence is going to seal your fate on January 6th with that ceremonial power there in Congress. And they didn't know it's in Pence's book. The Department of Justice was contacted to find out how they could get back at the Lincoln Project because it pissed off Donald Trump so much that we alerted them to this fact, so this has been brewing for quite some time."
"We have seen the anecdotes in the past about how Trump called Pence all kinds of names and basically called him a coward and said you're the P-word if you don't do this," Setmayer continued. "And, you know, I mean, Pence has been cowardly in a lot of ways. I think he's a weakling because he should have been this strong about what happened on January 6th immediately after and consistently after. You can't be this sanctimonious and this pearl-clutching about things 2 1/2 years later when you're trying to find political expediency to run, a lane to run in, which he doesn't have. What constituency does he have? He doesn't."
"I wish this wasn't as big of news as it is, because where was this for two years he's only saying this now because he wrote a book and he's trying to run for president and he did it to a crowd where he's trying to garner favor with him so they'll write glowing stories about him as he runs for president," added Setmayer "I'm over Mike Pence, and tired of everyone all of a sudden giving him a gold star and a cookie. It's like what Chris Rock said, what, do you want a cookie for doing the right thing? He should have done this! So I'm kind of over it."