On Tuesday, President Joe Biden’s campaign showed up outside former President Donald Trump’s New York City criminal hush money trial with actor Robert De Niro and a pair of former police officers to refocus the presidential race on the former president’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection.
Donald Trump Jr. recently took to his Twitter/X and wrote:
“Biden has Robert DeNiro still in a mask! It’s pathetic that DeNiro is the best celebrity that Biden can get as a surrogate. In 2020, every celebrity lined up behind him but in 2024, The Rock, Cardi b, & other major celebrities have turned on him & said they regret voting for him!”
It has been noted that it was a sharp about-face for Biden’s team that had largely ignored the trial since it began six weeks ago and is now looking to capitalize on its drama-filled closing moments as they sent De Niro and the first responders who were at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
It has come to light that Biden’s campaign had been concerned about feeding into Trump’s argument that his criminal trials were the result of politically motivated prosecutions. However, 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 stated that they weren’t there to talk about the trial and De Niro and the officers didn’t reference the sordid criminal case directly but rather to exploit the large media focus on the legal proceedings.
However, 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.”
