Donald Trump Being Removed From the Primary Ballot 'Would Rip the Country Apart,' Warns Former Obama Advisor
Dec. 31 2023, Published 10:37 a.m. ET
If Donald Trump were to be removed from the primary ballot, it would disrupt the United States, former Barack Obama advisor David Axelrod warned on Friday, December 29.
"I have very, very strong reservations about all of this," Axelrod said on CNN. "I do think it would rip the country apart if he were actually prevented from running because tens of millions of people want to vote for him."
"I think if you’re going to beat Donald Trump, you’re going to probably have to do it at the polls," he continued.
The former political advisor then said Maine's decision to remove the former president, 77, from the state's primary ballot may actually help him in the end.
"A lot of the motivation for [Trump’s] candidacy was as a legal defense strategy," Axelrod said. "He wanted to set up a construct … which says that they’re coming after him because he’s running for president, and they’re trying to prevent him from being president."
"We’ve run this experiment, he’s only gained since he started getting indicted," he said. "What you thought might be kryptonite for him has turned out to be battery packs, and this is a big one for him."
This is hardly the first time Axelrod has commented on the upcoming 2024 election.
As OK! previously reported, Axelrod pointed out how President Joe Biden, 81, may not have a great chance of being back in the White House for the second time.
“I think he has a 50-50 shot here, but no better than that, maybe a little worse,” Axelrod told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd in an article published on Sunday, November 19, before bringing up what Hillary Clinton might have been going through in 2016. “He thinks he can cheat nature here and it’s really risky. They’ve got a real problem if they’re counting on Trump to win it for them. I remember Hillary doing that, too.”
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According to insiders close tot Biden, he is not thrilled about Trump coming out on top.
"After pardoning a pair of turkeys, an annual White House tradition, Biden delivered some stern words for the small group assembled: His poll numbers were unacceptably low and he wanted to know what his team and his campaign were doing about it," The Washington Post reported.
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"He complained that his economic message had done little to move the ball, even as the economy was growing and unemployment was falling, according to people familiar with his comments, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation," the outlet noted.