Former President Donald Trump appears unrepentant about being mired in a defamation lawsuit over allegedly sexually assaulting advice columnist E. Jean Carroll — in fact, he is reveling in the proceedings, as he picks a fight with the judge under threat of being removed from the courtroom.
But those sorts of strategies are going to harm him in the election, former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) told MSNBC's Joy Reid on Wednesday. And what's more, he may not even be capable of understanding this.
"Here is a woman, one of his fans," said Reid, putting up a picture. "I saw this for myself with my own eyes in Cleveland during the convention the year that he was nominated. And that is what she wore on her body, this one particular fan. 'Trump can grab my...' with a down arrow. Since his fans don't care, including some of his supposedly Christian fans, that is why he behaves this way. I'm going to let you comment."
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"First of all, I feel sorry for that woman in that picture," said McCaskill. "I feel sorry for who she is and the life she's living. I really do. And I think what everybody has to realize here, I do think he will get kicked out of the courtroom. I think he wants to get kicked out of the courtroom. This is a courtroom campaign. This is not a retail campaign. He'll do a few rallies. But he made up his mind."
"You can look, Joy, once he was indicted on paying off Stormy Daniels and hiding it in New York, his numbers went up," said McCaskill. "He was struggling a little bit. I mean, people forget, there was a time when Ron DeSantis was polling ahead of him. And then he got indicted again. And they went up some more. Then he got indicted again. His poll numbers have done a steady climb in terms of consolidating the Republican vote on the back of his indictments. He truly believes that the more he's in the courtroom, the more he's acting out, the more he is defying the Deep State that's coming after him, the more the grievous gang that make up his supporters is going to be pleased and think that he's their guy. He's convinced them all. It's all bull. He's convinced them all that he's taking these arrows for them because this is what the Deep State does to people they don't like."
"It has been effective for him so far," said McCaskill. However, she added, "I will argue it won't be with swing voters. And I went with those voters in the Republican party who said clearly they'll never vote for him. so it's not like this is going to help him in the general election. but maybe he's just not smart enough to see that."
Watch the video below or at the link.
Claire McCaskill on Trump's campaign by indictment strategywww.youtube.com
