Feck You, David Axelrod

Today I’m introducing a new recurring column on The Handbasket called “Feck You.” The purpose is to highlight people and entities making it easier for this country to slide into fascism, and showing an alarming level of fecklessness in the face of clear and present threats to democracy.

While much ink will be spilled about malevolent Republicans in the coming days and months, it’s important to remember that they cannot achieve absolute power without the acquiescence of powerful people who say they’re on our side. It’s essential in these dark times to spot who is complying in advance in order to protect our most vulnerable, and I’ll aim to do that here.

Have a nomination for a Fecker? Email [email protected]

A famous story David Axelrod likes to tell is how he cried when the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 because his daughter has epilepsy and he knew how many others like her would have health care as a result of the transformative legislation. He’s told it on TV and even at a small gathering I attended in 2017, and its purpose seems to be to demonstrate that the former advisor to President Obama isn’t just a savvy political operative, but one with a soul. Just days after learning we’d soon have another Trump presidency, however, Axelrod displayed the kind of weak-willed, both sides approach to politics we’ve come to expect of his ilk—one that I firmly believe hurt us during this last election cycle. 

On the most recent episode of his podcast The Axe Files, Axelrod had on Chris LaCivita, co-chair of Trump’s presidential campaign. This isn’t the first time a Republican has been on the show: In the past Axelrod had on JD Vance, and even did an episode with war criminal Henry Kissinger before he died. But at a time when the Democratic party couldn’t be more raw and when hope is hard to come by, friendly banter with Trump’s number one guy seems remarkably, well, feckless.

I listened to the one-hour conversation to hear for myself if there was any point to it, and the answer is a resounding no.

Axelrod introduced LaCivita as the mastermind of the 2004 Swiftboat Veterans campaign against John Kerry that many credit with tanking his shot at the presidency. Specifically Axelrod called it, “historic and impactful and interesting.” When Axelrod asked LaCivita if he had any regrets about smearing Kerry, he replied, “I’d do it again tomorrow.” 

After running through more of LaCivita’s early resume and the immigration stories of his ancestors from Ireland and Italy, Axelrod moved onto January 6th and the MAGA operatives’ retweets from that day. According to a CNN story from last month, LaCivita shared posts “that harshly condemned Trump, suggesting that even some of his closest allies once viewed the deadly outcome as a direct result of Trump’s lies.” Both in a statement to CNN and in his interview with Axelrod, he reiterated that retweets are not endorsements. He also perpetuated the lie that only a tiny percentage of the January 6th rioters engaged in any wrongdoing. 

Instead of pressing LaCivita, Axelrod reassured listeners “we’ve got a good relationship and we’re friends.” Oh, well, thank god for that.

When the conversation came back to immigration, Axelrod tried to relate to LaCivita by talking about his family’s own immigration story. But surprising no one, it was a dead end. “I’m all for immigration as long as it’s legal..our grandparents came through Ellis Island,” LaCivita said. “They didn’t cross a border.” Who wants to tell him?

“I do not see an equivalency with my grandparents or my family history and what’s going on at the border right now,” LaCivita continued. “So I sleep soundly at night.”

After Axelrod complimented Trump on getting the “hero shot” right after the July assassination attempt on him—referring to the now-infamous photo of a bloodied Trump raising his fist in the air—the conversation turned to trans people and the campaign’s relentless attacks on their very existence. 

Axelrod specifically referenced the TV spot highlighting comments made by Kamala Harris in 2019 supporting access to gender-affirming care. “That will go down as one of the most ruthlessly effective negative ads in the history of presidential politics,” Axelrod said. And perhaps he wasn’t wrong, but a listener couldn’t help but wonder if he meant it as a compliment. 

When Axelrod asked LaCivita if he felt for the parents of trans minors and the attacks on them, LaCivita then tried to pivot to the parents of children killed by migrants. “I don’t make judgements about people,” he said. “I might disagree with them, but that’s not my job. I don’t make judgements. My faith doesn’t allow me to do that anyway. But at least in terms of the campaign, that is an issue that is central to the Democrats.” 

Axelrod replied “I didn’t see her [Harris] running on it,” to which LaCivita so slickly retorted, “Well of course not, because she saw how bad it was!”

Were Democrats running on protecting trans people or not? The Trump team can’t even get its own story straight. And, of course, we know the answer is that they absolutely were not. Axelrod even referred to it as “a very obscure issue.”

“In school systems across the country teachers are literally running around telling kids ‘this is Trans Day’,” LaCivita droned on. “That’s being force-fed to people across the country. And the vast majority of people are not for it. I certainly empathize with people who have a situation like that. Just don’t freakin’ tell the rest of the world that it’s gotta be accepted as the way it has to be.”

Axelrod did not press him. They wrapped up their chat with Axelrod saying, “Good to see you. Thank you for being here.”

Any illusion of a blue firewall continues to show cracks, with Axelrod’s fellow Obama White House alums at the Pod Save America podcast acquiescing to right-wing demands.

On Saturday co-host Jon Favreau posted on Twitter: “I'm quite comfortable - morally and politically - with the position that Dem presidential candidates shouldn't let voters believe they want to defund the police, abolish ICE, decriminalize border crossings, or provide transition surgeries for undocumented immigrants in prison.”

It’s a bewildering statement from a supposed DC insider, making it sound as though Dems are responsible for Republican framing.  And when incoming Rep. Sarah McBride, the first openly trans member of Congress, said she’d abide by Speaker Johnson’s bathroom ban at the Capitol—much to the distress of trans people—Favreau was a vocal cheerleader for her decorum in the face of heinous bigotry. 

And after years of calling him a dangerous fascist, so-called liberal MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough showed how they plan to roll over for a second Trump administration with their recent jaunt to Mar-a-Lago to meet with him. They’ve now spent days defending their actions instead of doing any actual work to protect the safety of our democracy.

With Democrats like these, who needs Republicans?