President Joe Biden’s campaign on Tuesday showed up outside former President Donald Trump‘s New York City criminal hush money trial in an effort to refocus the race on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Biden’s team, which had largely ignored the trial since it began six weeks ago, was looking to capitalize on its drama-filled closing moments, sending actor Robert De Niro and some of the first responders at the Capitol that day. A top adviser said they weren’t there to talk about the trial, rather to exploit the large media focus on the legal proceedings.
Quick Read
- Biden campaign sends allies De Niro and first responders to Trump NYC trial to keep focus on Jan. 6
- President Biden’s campaign mobilized allies, including actor Robert De Niro and Capitol insurrection first responders, outside former President Trump’s New York City hush money trial to refocus attention on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
- This move, marking a shift from the campaign’s previous strategy of largely ignoring the trial, aimed to capitalize on the trial’s high-profile closing moments.
- Biden campaign communication director Michael Tyler emphasized that their presence was to leverage media attention on the trial rather than discuss the legal proceedings.
- De Niro, who recently narrated a Biden campaign ad criticizing Trump’s presidency, told reporters, “Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city but the country and eventually, he could destroy the world.”
- Trump adviser Jason Miller accused the Biden campaign of politicizing the trial, arguing that their presence outside the courthouse indicated the trial’s political motivations.
The Associated Press has the story:
Biden campaign sends allies De Niro & 1st responders to Trump NYC trial to keep focus on Jan. 6
Newslooks- WASHINGTON (AP) —
President Joe Biden’s campaign on Tuesday showed up outside former President Donald Trump‘s New York City criminal hush money trial in an effort to refocus the race on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
Biden’s team, which had largely ignored the trial since it began six weeks ago, was looking to capitalize on its drama-filled closing moments, sending actor Robert De Niro and some of the first responders at the Capitol that day. A top adviser said they weren’t there to talk about the trial, rather to exploit the large media focus on the legal proceedings.
“We’re not here today because of what’s going on over there,” said Biden campaign communication director Michael Tyler, gesturing toward the courthouse. “We’re here today because you all are here.”
The Biden campaign last week released a new ad that was narrated by De Niro sharply criticizing Trump’s presidency and plans if he’s reelected.
“I love this city. I don’t want to destroy it,” De Niro told reporters. “Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city but the country and eventually, he could destroy the world.”
Trump allies planned their own press conference Tuesday, with Trump adviser Jason Miller saying the Biden event proved Trump’s argument that his prosecution was politically motivated.
“Joe’s crookeds aren’t in PA, MI, WI, NV, AZ or GA – they’re outside the Biden Trial against President Trump,” he said. “It’s always been about politics.”
It was a sharp about-face for Biden’s team, which had largely ignored the trial since it began six weeks ago and is now looking to capitalize on its drama-filled closing moments, sending the “Goodfellas” actor and the first responders who were at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Biden’s campaign had been wary about feeding into Trump’s argument that his criminal trials were the result of politically motivated prosecutions, but ultimately it decided to engage because its message about the stakes of the election was struggling to break through the intense focus on the trial.
A top Biden adviser said they weren’t there to talk about the trial — and De Niro and the officers didn’t reference the sordid criminal case directly — rather to exploit the large media focus on the legal proceedings. But Trump advisers argued in a dueling press conference that the Biden team’s presence validated the Republican former president’s claims that his prosecutions are being driven by politics.
“We’re not here today because of what’s going on over there,” Biden campaign communication director Michael Tyler told reporters, gesturing toward the courthouse. “We’re here today because you all are here.”
The back-to-back press conferences were a side show to the main event playing out inside the courthouse, where closing arguments were under way in the only Trump trial likely to surface before the November election. There are two others directly related to the Republican’s efforts to undo his 2020 loss to Biden, a Democrat: A federal case in Washington is related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and a state case in Georgia accuses him of election interference. He has pleaded not guilty in those cases.
The Biden campaign last week released a new ad that was narrated by De Niro sharply criticizing Trump’s presidency and plans if he’s reelected.
“I don’t mean to scare you. No, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you,” De Niro told reporters. “If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted.”
The actor cast himself as the true New Yorker and mocked Trump’s history of sometimes-unsuccessful business ventures and self-promotion, saying Trump was looking to “destroy” the city.
“We New Yorkers used to tolerate him when he was just another crappy real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot,” De Niro said. “I love this city. I don’t want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city but the country, and, eventually, he could destroy the world.”
Former Washington, D.C., police officer Michael Fanone and former Capitol police officer Harry Dunn spoke of their personal experiences on Jan. 6, with Fanone describing his injuries suffered at the hands of the mob of Trump supporters seeking to halt Congress’ certification of Biden’s 2020 presidential victory.
“I came here today to remind Americans of what Donald Trump is capable of and the violence that he unleashed on all of Americans on Jan. 6, 2021,” Fanone said.
The two former officers were also witnesses during a congressional investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Hundreds of law enforcement officers were beaten and bloodied in the attack by Trump supporters, who descended after a rally and smashed into the Capitol while Trump remained silent for hours.
“Americans need to wake up. This is not a drill,” said Harry Dunn, a former Capitol police officer who ran unsuccessfully for office in Maryland.
“We can’t count on these institutions to stop Donald Trump,” he added. “It’s going to take us Americans at the ballot box to defeat him once and for all.”
Trump’s campaign staffers held their own news conference at the same spot outside the courthouse to respond to De Niro, the Jan. 6 officers and the Biden campaign.
Trump’s senior campaign adviser, Jason Miller, called De Niro — who won Oscars for his roles in “The Godfather: Part II” and “Raging Bull” — “a washed-up actor” and said the Biden news conference proved Trump’s arguments that the trial, like the others the former president is facing, was motivated by politics.
“After months of saying politics had nothing to do with this trial, they showed up and made a campaign event out of a lower Manhattan trial day for President Trump,” Miller said.
Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s press secretary, called the Biden campaign “desperate and failing” and “pathetic” and said its event outside the trial was “a full-blown concession that this trial is a witch hunt that comes from the top.”
