Joe Biden has been trying to distance himself for years from the malicious and relentless prosecution of his political rival. He told a New Hampshire crowd of supporters that Donald Trump should be jailed.
Biden’s comments show exactly why Kamala Harris and her campaign had hoped to keep the president off the campaign trail and firmly locked up in his basement.
The Republican candidate, who weaponized all departments under his purview in his one term as President, began his campaign by warning voters the Republican candidate wanted to abolish the Department of Education.
Biden argued that the Supreme Court’s ruling on Trump’s presidential immunity implied that Trump thought he could “physically remove, shoot, and kill anyone he believes is a threat to himself.”
This is the type of rhetoric that can lead to assassination efforts against political opponents.
Biden added, “I’m sure this sounds strange.” “It’s like (if I) said this five years ago, you would have locked me up.”
“We gotta lock him up.”
President Joe Biden says the quiet part out loud for Democrats about former President Donald Trump: “We gotta lock him up”
He said this just now on the campaign trail in New Hampshire pic.twitter.com/63sdel3eyr
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 22, 2024
The president’s comments were clearly an off-script remark and a play on the words he had just spoken. (I’m just going to come out and make that point since the fact-checkers will have cleaned this comment up on his behalf within a few hours, I’m quite certain.)
It’s a type of talk that we’ve become accustomed to. It’s eerily similar to his 2012 comments on Mitt Romney’s “unchaining Wall Street”. “They’re gonna put y’all in chains.”
Biden, realizing his mistake, paused for five seconds before adding “politically.”
“Politically, lock him up,” said he as the crowd cheered the idea of Trump being in jail.
Harris spent a lot of time in the campaign trying to stop supporters from chanting “lock him up”.
“Well, hang on, what do you know? She said that the courts would handle this part, at a rally she held in Wisconsin last August. “What we are going to do in November is beat them.”
Biden undid this effort in no time, during a very rare stump speech for Harris. It’s like he’s always trying to undermine his replacement.
The president has repeatedly insisted that he is not responsible for the politically motivated prosecutions Trump faces to keep him from the White House.
Biden stated at a 2023 press conference that he had never suggested to the Justice Department, “not once, not even one time,” what they should or shouldn’t do in relation to filing or not filing a criminal charge. “I’m honest.”
Was he honest before or now accidentally?
Trump respectfully disagrees that Biden’s hand is clean in this matter.
Trump stated that the DOJ and the White House were working together on all cases. “This is done by Biden’s people.”
In May, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying records. The charges were based on a payment of hush money made by Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, in the 2016 presidential election. The sentencing for this matter will take place three weeks after the 2016 election.
In addition, the former President is facing federal charges in D.C. as well as state charges in Georgia in relation to his attempts to contest Biden’s loss in the 2020 elections. Jack Smith, Special Counsel for the Florida Federal case against him is appealing its dismissal. He was accused of mishandling classified documents.
Biden’s comments, regardless of their intention, will undoubtedly reignite Trump’s and his supporters’ efforts in suggesting that it was the current president and not the former who weaponized the Justice Department, and friendly Democrat prosecutors, against his political rivals.
Update – 7:30 pm Eastern:
Trump’s campaign has responded to Biden now:
“Joe Biden just admitted the truth: he and Kamala’s plan all along has been to politically persecute their opponent President Trump because they can’t beat him fair and square. The Harris-Biden Admin is the real threat to democracy. We call on Kamala Harris to condemn Joe Biden’s disgraceful remark.” — Karoline Leavitt, Trump Campaign National Press Secretary
