President Joe Biden taunted former President Donald Trump on Wednesday for being confined to a Manhattan courtroom while fighting a lawfare campaign being led, in part, by a former Biden Department of Justice official. But the incumbent took his indifference to the weaponization of law a step further: he is now fundraising off the lawfare circus.
Biden released a 14-second clip on Wednesday in which he finally agreed to debate Trump — after dodging the possibility for months. Biden closed out his highly-edited video by mocking Trump’s limited availability to — simply put — be a presidential candidate.
“So let’s pick the dates, Donald,” Biden said. “I hear you’re free on Wednesdays.”
Biden’s campaign doubled down by releasing a $32 T-shirt that says “Free On Wednesdays.”
Biden’s mocking remarks are a reference to the Democrat campaign strategy of weaponizing lawfare against Trump, as Biden trails in the polls. As Democrats hold out hope the lawfare circus will boost Biden’s popularity, they’ve expressed shock that Trump is “still ahead of Biden in recent polls” and wondered why the lawfare campaigns are “not hurting” Trump. A newly released New York Times/Siena College poll finds despite Democrats’ best efforts, Trump leads Biden overall in five key swing states among registered and likely voters.
Since his first lawfare trial began in April, Trump has been forced to appear in person every day — except most Wednesdays — at a Manhattan courthouse. District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted him last April on 34 charges related to falsifying business records, based on a payment made by Trump’s then-lawyer to buy the story of a pornographer who claimed to have had an affair with Trump.
Biden’s comment Wednesday wasn’t the first time he has made the weaponization of the justice system against his opponent the butt of a joke.
As reported by The Independent, Biden attempted to humor some of his donors by gloating that a separate lawfare campaign was bankrupting the former president.
Mr. Biden, who was on the second day of a three-day trip to several Western states, told attendees at the campaign event that a person had approached him to talk about a high debt burden.
“Just the other day this defeated looking man came up to me and said: ‘Mr. President I need your help. I’m in crushing debt. I’m completely wiped out,”’ he said.
After a moment, Mr. Biden delivered the punchline, telling the crowd that he had responded: “Donald, I’m sorry. I can’t help you.”
The fundraiser attendees, who numbered roughly 100, erupted into laughs.
Biden was referring to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawfare case against the former president in which Trump was found liable for inflating his net worth to secure loans despite a complete lack of any victims. Trump was ordered to post a bond in the exorbitant amount of $175 million, down $279 million from the initial judgment.
As my colleague Eddie Scarry aptly noted, Biden’s remarks were yet another “inadvertent admission that Democrats and Biden’s Justice Department are hoping to liquidate their opponents through endless prosecution.”
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist.
