Biden campaign stages event featuring Robert De Niro outside Trump’s NY trial – National & International News – TUE 28May2024

Biden campaign stages event featuring Robert De Niro outside Trump’s NY trial.

DNC to nominate Biden and Harris virtually to avoid Ohio ballot snag.

Biden campaign stages event featuring Robert De Niro outside Trump’s NY trial

Today, prosecution and defense attorneys are delivering closing arguments in former President Trump’s hush-money trial in New York. The jury will begin deliberating tomorrow. Trump faces four years in prison if convicted on all counts.

Biden’s campaign took advantage of the media circus and the crowd outside the courthouse today to hold a press conference featuring Oscar-winning actor and outspoken Trump critic Robert De Niro. 

De Niro, who recently featured in a Biden campaign commercial, said he was taking an active roll in the campaign to “preserve our freedoms”. Pulling no punches, De Niro spoke on Trump’s record, his sometimes unsuccessful business career, his shameless self-promotion, and his plans for a second term. “I don’t mean to scare you,” De Niro said. “No, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you. If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted.”

“We New Yorkers used to tolerate [Trump] when he was just another crappy real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot. A two-bit playboy lying his way into the tabloids,” 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 police officers Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone also spoke about their experiences defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Both spoke vividly about the violence perpetrated by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the 2020 election results.

“Americans need to wake up. This is not a drill,” said Dunn. He added that, “It’s going to take us Americans at the ballot box to defeat [Trump] once and for all”.

Trump’s team says Biden event proves prosecutions are political “witch hunt”

While Trump has frequently used his courthouse appearances to make political speeches, Biden’s campaign had, until now, resisted the temptation to follow Trump’s lead in politicizing his legal proceedings in this way. Today, Trump spokesman Jason Miller followed-up the De Niro press conference with one of his own.

After calling De Niro a “washed up actor,” Miller said the Biden event confirmed Trump’s view that the prosecutions against him are politically-motivated.  “After months of saying politics had nothing to do with this trial,” Miller said, “they showed up and made a campaign event out of a lower Manhattan trial day for President Trump”.

Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed this sentiment, saying the Biden campaign event outside the courthouse was “a full-blown concession that this trial is a witch hunt that comes from the top”.

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DNC to virtually nominate Biden and Harris to avoid Ohio ballot snag

Last week, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose wrote a letter to Democratic party officials in the state warning that Biden may not appear on Ohio’s ballots in November due to a conflict with state law. In order to appear on general election ballots, Ohio requires candidates to be officially nominated 90 days before the election, which this year would be August 7. The Democratic National Convention, where candidates’ nominations are usually confirmed, will not happen until August 19.

Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine called a special legislative session to pass a measure that would provide a work-around for what he called an “absurd” situation. However, the state’s Republican Speaker Jason Stephens warned that the body likely would not pass such a measure.

Instead, the Democratic National Committee announced today that they would hold an online summit to officially nominate Joe Biden for President and Kamala Harris for Vice President. The online conference will take place ahead of Ohio’s August 7 deadline, but the DNC did not provide a date.

The party had already been toying with the possibility of having the convention be an online, or partially online, event. Organizers fear disruptions from Gaza ceasefire protesters in Chicago, where the event is will take place. 

Whether or not the DNC goes ahead with an online or in-person event, an online nominating process ahead of time will certainly rob the event of much of its importance. It would also alleviate some potential drama, putting an end to talk about replacing Biden with another candidate due to his age or his bad poll numbers. 

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