CNN contributor and democratic political strategist David Axelrod says Donald Trump’s “life is flashing before his eyes” as the former president faces the possibility of defeat in the November election and the legal fallout that comes after.
In an interview with CNN’s Michael Smerconish on Saturday Axelrod said the stakes for Trump in this election is much higher than any other candidate because “the consequence of a defeat is that he’s going to face the bar of justice.”
“He thought he had beaten it. When we were in Milwaukee [at the Republican National Convention], the talk was of landslide, and it felt like they were talking about the ‘terms of surrender’ they were going to demand,” Axelrod continued. “He felt very serene that he had beaten this. 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.”
The state of the presidential race has shifted drastically since President Joe Biden stepped aside and Vice-President Kamala Harris replaced him as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Harris has proven to be a more formidable opponent to Trump. She has outperformed Trump in a majority of the polls since joining the race and has wiped out the former president’s lead in the crucial battleground states.
Trump is already convicted of 34 felony charges in New York state. He also faces federal and state charges related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and another federal case involving his mishandling of classified documents and obstruction of justice.
Though U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed the classified documents case, Special Counsel Jack Smith is appealing the ruling.
Meanwhile in Georgia, the state court of appeals denied Trump’s lawyers’ request to delay his election subversion case until 2025.
Still, the trials for Trump’s federal cases will likely take place only if he loses the November election as it is expected that he will direct his DOJ to dismiss the charges against him if he wins.
Later in the interview, Axelrod suggested that Trump’s legal problems are weighing heavily on his mind and causing him to lash out and go off message, pointing to Trump’s disastrous press conference this week that was suppose to be focused on the economy.
“He blew himself up and spent ten minutes on his legal problems and lashing out in other places and he overwhelmed the message of his own press conference,” Axelrod said. “He is not a competent candidate right now.”
“One of the questions about this debate is, is that the guy who is going to step on the debate stage, because if it is, they got a world of hurt,” he added.
