the president Joe Biden On Tuesday, he repeated the language of the former president Donald Trump In the past, he has used the former president to say, “We need to shut him down.”
Speaking at a campaign event in New Hampshire, Biden said Trump’s policies were so “weird” and dangerous that if he had warned about them five years ago, “you would have locked me up.”
“We’ve got to shut it down,” Biden said to cheers from the small crowd before catching himself, adding: “We’re shutting it down politically.”
“Lock him up,” Biden continued. “That’s what we have to do.”
A White House official later said that Biden’s two immediate statements — that Trump was shutting down “politically” and that he was shutting him down “from the outside” — were how the president’s comments should be interpreted. The official added that Biden was talking about how voters should think about the stakes of the election.
The Trump campaign responded Tuesday night by calling on Vice President Kamala Harris to denounce Biden’s remarks.
“Joe Biden just admitted the truth: he and Kamala’s plan has always been to politically harass their opponent, President Trump, because they can’t beat him fair and square,” campaign press secretary Caroline Leavitt said in a statement.
“The Harris-Biden administration is a real threat to democracy. We call on Kamala Harris to condemn Joe Biden’s disgraceful statement,” he said.
So does Stephen Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s election campaign He criticized the remarks about X.
“President Trump is the only candidate to have been shot in the head in a failed assassination attempt,” Cheung said. July 13 shooting At a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“What a piece of shit Biden is,” Cheung added.
Both of them Biden and there’s Harris condemned political violence After the assassination attempt on Trump.
Biden’s comments drew backlash from other Trump allies.
Charlie Kirkfounder of the conservative activist group Turning Point USA, X said: “This is why the Democrat machine is working feverishly to imprison Trump. It’s all on purpose.”
Biden’s remarks are a distraction for the Harris campaign at a critical juncture in a razor-close race, and they come as they have already made a calculated decision not to appear on the trail with him before Election Day.
At his rallies, Harris typically shuts down chants of “lock him up” aimed at Trump, saying the courts will sort it out.
Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York state in May. His sentencing is scheduled for next month after the election. Federal prosecutors led by special counsel Jack Smith Trump was accused in two separate cases; Trump has pleaded not guilty and has denied wrongdoing in each case.
Chants of “lock her up” against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 became popular among Trump supporters during that election, with Trump sometimes standing by as the crowd chanted. other times he agrees “they should shut it down.”
Chants of “lock him up” were returned by the crowd at the Democratic National Convention in August this year when Clinton endorsed Harris.
Meanwhile, there is Trump he does not hesitate to threaten that he will be judged his political opponents.
In August he reposted manipulated images Biden, Harris and other political opponents in orange prison garb with the headline: “BASICLY ‘HOW TO SUPPORT THE SYSTEM.’
Trump also told Democrats and those investigating him that “the enemy from within”, claimed in an interview published this month that they pose a greater threat than China, Russia and other countries.
He routinely paints Harris and Clinton as criminals. Trump referred to Harris as “criminal”. At a campaign rally this month in Aurora, Colorado.
Jake Traylor, Caroline Kenny and Monica Alba contributed.