Michael Steele, a former chair of the Republican National Committee, on Wednesday mocked former President Donald Trump’s latest claim about his legal woes as “laughable.”
Trump, following his announcement that he would soon likely be indicted in the special counsel investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, this week attempted to paint himself as the victim when he told supporters he ”didn’t know practically what a subpoena was” prior to becoming the subject of the probe, one of several he is facing.
“How many times has this dude been sued?” Steele asked of Trump.
“He doesn’t know what a subpoena is? ‘I practically don’t know what a subpoena is,’” the one-time GOP leader continued, rolling his eyes.
Steele called it the “deflection lie.”
“You are a New York real estate tycoon, as you like to tell us, a billionaire. You mean to tell me, in all the times you’ve been running your companies, you’ve never received a subpoena? I think that’s pretty well-documented at this point,” he added.
Trump “wants to get out in front, he wants to continue to play the victim, to that audience that eats it whole, completely digesting it, with all the pits and rind included,” said Steele.
“It doesn’t matter to them. They take it all in. If Donald Trump gets up and tells them that, ‘I didn’t know, there was a moon that circled the earth,’ they’d believe it.”