Up to now, Joe Biden has been relatively subdued in his attacks on serial sex abuser and convicted felon Donald Trump (SSACFT), despite getting severely attacked by SSACFT and his supporters in the right wing echo chamber. But in a new press release, the Biden campaign hammers SSACFT harder than anything I have seen so far. It is a pretty comprehensive takedown. It looks like this is the tack Biden is going to take in the debate on June 27th.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 17, 2024Trump’s Debate Lies Show How Scared He Is
Donald Trump is a liar and a fraud. His campaign is full of liars and frauds. And their desperate leaks and lies to the right-wing media only underscore how scared Donald Trump is to debate.This is Donald’s debate playbook: lies, distractions, and deceit. Donald Trump and his campaign are scared because they can’t defend his record, personal conduct, or extreme agenda in front of the American people.Donald can’t defend that he’s a criminal who has been convicted of 34 felonies, was found liable for sexual assault, committed financial fraud, and is only out for himself.
Donald can’t defend his endorsement of state abortion bans, including ones that track women’s pregnancies, threaten access to IVF, and punish women.
Donald can’t defend that he has the worst jobs record of any modern president and oversaw the largest increase in the murder rate on record.
Donald can’t defend his economic agenda of higher prices for working Americans and Social Security cuts – all so he can give corporations and billionaires more tax handouts.
Donald can’t defend that he’s unhinged about losing by 7 million votes to Joe Biden in 2020, is proposing to be a “dictator” on day one, and a violent “bloodbath” when he loses again in November.
Donald can’t defend his actions on or leading up to January 6.
Donald can’t defend his extreme Supreme Court nominees.
Donald can’t defend being a lifelong racist who failed Black and brown America as president.
Donald can’t defend wanting to rip away health care protections from more than 100 million Americans.
Donald can’t defend insulting veterans, law enforcement, and the American people.We are at an inflection point as a nation. Our freedoms, our democracy, our middle class, our leadership on the world stage are all at stake.To lead America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future of what America can and should be. Donald Trump does not have a vision of anything beyond the failure he sees in the mirror.
Statement from TJ Ducklo, Biden-Harris 2024 Senior Advisor for Communications:“Donald Trump has been playing games around debates for years: lying about negotiations, bailing at the last minute, and making insane accusations about moderators and microphones all because he’s terrified to defend the dangerous and extreme things he’s done and promises to do again. “Joe Biden will be at the debate standing up for our democracy, our freedoms, and the American people. If Trump would like to sit down behind his podium he can, but we’re worried he may fall asleep. If he shows up at all.”
However, the statement only once says that SSACFT is unhinged, and that is over his incapacity to accept his election defeat. In the debate, Biden should go after his obsessions about windmills, whales sharks, toilets, showers, and the many other trivialities that he rants about from day to day. Those are the things that really show how unhinged he is. In the debate, I hope Biden needles SSACFT with all these absurdities, hoping that he will take the bait and go off the rails.
A new ad hits at SSACFT for being a convicted criminal and other court defeats.
It looks like Biden has well and truly taken the gloves off. And about time too.
Well, somebody’s not complacent or taking victory for granted even despite a thumping win last time. Good stuff.
I think at first the Biden campaign was basically “let’s not give him more ammunition for the claims that the proceedings against him actually were some form of politically-motivated attack. Let’s try to take the high road and stick to positive messaging.”
Now it’s become “he’s going to flat out lie and blame us for this despite our hands-off approach, so we might as well take the fight back to him; we literally have nothing to lose by doing so since he’s attacking us for it anyway.”
I’d suggest it’s more tactical than anything. We are now 20 weeks until election day and voting starts a few weeks prior to that, so call it 15 weeks. Team Biden has followed William Prescott’s advice, even it the quote was apocryphal, of “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes.” In other words, don’t waste your ammunition when the enemy is too far away to do much damage.
15 weeks is enough time to get the message out to everyone, but also keep it fresh enough that it doesn’t get stale. It also gives Team Trump limited time to get a good response out. It’s likely to take 2-4 weeks for Team Trump to create and start distributing a rebuttal to this ad, and by that time, if Team Biden has planned well, there will be another anti-Trump add with different accusations. There certainly is enough material available to continually keep Team Trump on the defensive until election day.
The last few months of ‘Sleepy Joe’, or ‘Old Joe’ of messaging from the Republican media and Team Trump has already entered and been absorbed into public consciousness. People have had time to consider that message and either reject it, decide it doesn’t matter, or embrace it. And Team Biden has greatly benefited from Trump dozing during his trial.
Note: I’m using the sports metaphor of teams only as a shorthand, I very clearly see that this isn’t a sport. Every time a people elects a leader the consequences are far greater than the results of a sports-ball game. This particular election may be more important than most.
You’re not the only one who noticed, Mano.
In today’s edition of Vox:
https://www.vox.com/politics/355756/joe-biden-campaign-ad-trump-convicted-criminal
Excerpt:
To me, it would be political malpractice NOT to hammer SSACFT on his many lies, absurdities, desire to become another Orban or Putin -- let the American public know just how awful the guy is. I would prominently feature video of him saying ludicrously stupid nonsense, although I pity the poor campaign employee who would have to wade through all the garbage to find the worst of the worst.
Another reason why the Biden administration refrained from commenting about the fraud trial until after the verdict was to avoid any hint of government interference that might provide the felon with grounds for a mistrial.
Now that it’s over, Biden is free to speak on his conviction.