Biden pokes fun at Trump
US President mocks election rival as losing 'in the court of public opinion.'
UNITED States President Joe Biden hits the presidential election campaign trail by poking fun at his rival’s predicament.
While former president Donald Trump was in his historic hush money trial this week in New York, Biden embarked on a three-day swing through his birthplace, the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania.
He visited his childhood home and campaigned with the Kennedys, while Trump complained about being in a “freezing” New York courtroom unable to campaign.
“Under my predecessor — who’s busy right now — Pennsylvania lost 275,000 jobs,” the 81-year-old Biden deadpanned in reference to his rival’s situation, while his audience at a steelworkers’ union laughed.
It was the first time Biden had publicly acknowledged Trump’s criminal trial since it got underway in New York on Monday, and a departure from his previous silence on the matter.
The White House said he was not following the trial, adding that his “focus is on the American people.”
Biden has focused on attacking Trump on vulnerable issues such as abortion, while believing that his own economic message is starting to get through.
Yet Trump still leads Biden in several battleground states in recent polls, meaning that the president’s campaign needs to seize the moment.
The Biden campaign is also taking less than subtle digs at Trump’s legal woes.
This week it said there had been “Stormy abortion ban coverage” for Trump — a dig at the trial in which Trump is accused of falsifying business records to cover up an alleged extramarital sexual encounter with adult film actress Stormy Daniels to shield his 2016 election campaign from scandal.
It spoke of Trump’s “trials and tribulations” and mocked the former president as losing “in the court of public opinion.”
And Biden continued to mock Trump, including over the fact that his campaign is spending millions on legal bills, coupled with another three criminal indictments.
In his Pennsylvania hometown of Scranton on Tuesday, Biden retold a joke about how a “defeated-looking guy” who was “drowning in debt” came up to him and asked for help.
“I said, ‘I’m sorry, Donald, but I can't help you,’” quipped Biden.