Axelrod: Trump speech ‘first good thing that’s happened to Democrats’ in weeks

Democratic strategist David Axelrod said early Friday morning that former President Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention was “the first good thing that’s happened to Democrats in three weeks.”

“People, I’m sure, responded very positively to his appeals to unity that were written on the teleprompter, and then he just ripped the bejesus out of everybody … all his political enemies and so on,” Axelrod, also a former Obama adviser, said on CNN.

“I have to tell you … Chris Wallace said this,” Axelrod said. “This is the first good thing that’s happened to Democrats in the last three weeks.”

Axelrod said Trump’s speech “really reminded everyone why Donald Trump is fundamentally unpopular outside this room.”

Trump formally accepted his party’s presidential nomination Thursday via a long and rambling speech. It went longer than an hour and a half, resulting in it being the longest acceptance speech by a major party candidate. 

The former president and his advisers said earlier this week that he had scrapped his original convention speech draft in the wake of an assassination attempt on Saturday, opting for remarks that would be more restrained 

However, during his speech, Trump still went after top Democrats, naming President Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).