Democratic strategist David Axelrod said he thinks the biggest lesson President Trump has learned over the last four years is that he can “get away with anything.”
“I think the lesson he’s drawn from the last four years is, he can get away with anything,” Axelrod said Tuesday on CNN. “And I think he’s sort of daring people in some ways with these pardons.”
One of Trump’s first actions back in office was delivering pardons to nearly all of the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump’s pardons went to people who did not act violently on Jan. 6 when his supporters overwhelmed Capitol Police and entered the building, forcing the evaculation of lawmakers certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.
But they pardons also covered a number of individuals who carried out violent acts against police, a move that has drawn opposition from some Republicans.
Axelrod argued that the litmus test for Trump is if people were good to him, and he sees the Jan. 6 defendants as being in that group.
“Remember on the day of the insurrection, he issued a video to the protesters and said ‘We love you, you’re very special. I know your pain. I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it,’” Axelrod said.
“And so, this whole thing flows from the original sin that he is trying to expunge,” he continued. “And at this point he said, ‘Look, I got reelected, I dodged four indictments, and I’m just going to put my foot to the pedal and these people supported me.’”
Trump has brushed away the suggestion that he doesn’t support law enforcement despite pardoning those who attacked police officers in the Capitol.
“These people have already served years in prison, and they’ve served them viciously. It’s a disgusting prison. It’s horrible. It’s been inhumane,” Trump said Tuesday.
