Former Sen. Claire McCaskill Says This Trump Tactic Will Backfire And He Won't Even Realize
Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Wednesday explained why she believes former President Donald Trump’s courtroom antics — which saw him threatened with removal from the courtroom during E. Jean Carroll’s defamation trial against him earlier in the day — may backfire on him in the long term.
McCaskill, talking to MSNBC’s Joy Reid, argued that Trump actually wants to be kicked out of the courtroom in order to make political capital by continuing to paint himself as a victim of injustice and the so-called Deep State.
“This is a courtroom campaign. This is not a retail campaign,” she said. “He’ll do a few rallies but he made up his mind.”
McCaskill suggested bumps in Trump’s polling numbers following each indictment had signaled to the Republican 2024 front-runner that being the “victim” was a winning tactic for his base.
It’s “been effective for him so far,” said McCaskill.
But she doubted it’ll work with swing voters in the 2024 election.
“It won’t be with those voters in the Republican party who said clearly they’ll never vote for him,” she added. “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.”
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