Axelrod: When Trump Was Calling MS-13 ‘Animals’ I Thought He Was Talking About a W.H. Staff Meeting

RUSH EXCERPT:

TAPPER: "Obviously the MS-13 gang is horrific, they’re violent, they do a lot of the things that the president said. But from a political messaging standpoint, what do you make of the language the president is using here to talk about MS-13?"
AXELROD: "Well, I actually thought, Jake, when I first started hearing the tape that he was talking about a White House staff meeting. I didn’t realize he was talking about this. But, look, he obviously — he is pandering to bases, and as you point out, this is a horrific issue, but he’s pandering to bases. We’ve seen it. And so this is not unusual. But I think that — and perhaps by being even more vivid, he hopes to draw attention away from the stories of the day. But this has been an extraordinary week. I mean, on the week that the president’s principal legislative initiative is on life support in the Senate, you’ve got the president warring with the attorney general who is very popular with the Senate in the Republican caucus. You’ve got his communications director warring with the chief of staff who is one of the best friends of speaker of the house. And you’ve got bedlam. Of course, the legislation went down. It may have gone down, anyway, but they basically took the spotlight off what they wanted it to be on and placed it on themselves. This has been the story of the first six months of this administration, which is the reason why this president is the least accomplished president of any president in memory after six months. He has no legislative accomplishments. You cannot run the most complicated office in the world this way. It simply cannot continue without massive results, which we’re seeing now."