Brazile: Trump ‘played the victim card’ at first 2024 campaign rally

Donna Brazile, former acting chair of the Democratic National Committee, said on Sunday  former President Trump “played the victim card” at his first 2024 campaign rally Saturday in Waco, Texas.

“Donald Trump yesterday played the victim card. He played all of his grievances, the best of Donald Trump, with a little bit of sprinkling of what he’s been talking about lately, which is ‘I’m being prosecuted, come to my defense, I need your help,’” Brazile said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Trump kicked off his first official campaign rally of his latest reelection bid with a reworked version of the national anthem sung by inmates incarcerated for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

He pitched himself as fighting “the final battle” as “our enemies are desperate to stop us” — and dismissed the multiple ongoing investigations focusing on him.

Brazile on Sunday added to the voices condemning Trump for urging his supporters to “protest” and “take our nation back” ahead of his potential arrest in the Manhattan district attorney’s probe into his role in an alleged hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

“It’s despicable, what he’s doing. Donald Trump is a leading front-runner in the Republican primary,” Brazile said.

“Leading front-runner. There is no one even close to him, although [Florida] Gov. [Ron] DeSantis has tried to catch up, but he is the front-runner of a major political party. To incite his crowds the way he is doing, it should be condemned by everyone. There’s no place in America for the kind of political violence that he’s projecting,” Brazile said. 

Democrats including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) blasted Trump on Friday for saying that charges against him could lead to “potential death & destruction.”

“The twice-impeached former president’s rhetoric is reckless, reprehensible and irresponsible. It’s dangerous, and if he keeps it up, he’s going to get someone killed,” Jeffries said during a press briefing in the Capitol.