Seeking to troll Donald Trump outside his Manhattan trial, the Biden campaign held a news conference with the actor and two former Capitol Police officers. Mr. De Niro veered off script.
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Robert De Niro spoke on behalf of the Biden campaign outside the courthouse.
President Biden’s campaign, after more than a year of studiously avoiding direct comments about Donald J. Trump’s legal problems, on Tuesday dispatched the actor Robert De Niro to the Manhattan courthouse where the former president’s first criminal trial is wrapping up.
Mr. De Niro — in an off-script moment — declared that Mr. Trump was guilty and should go to jail.
“The fact is whether he’s acquitted, whether it’s hung jury, whatever it is, he is guilty, and we all know it,” the actor said after the news conference. “I’ve never seen a guy get out of so many things, and we all know this. Everybody in the world knows this.”
Asked if he thought Mr. Trump should be in jail, Mr. De Niro replied: “I sure do. Absolutely.”
The foray by a Biden surrogate into commentary about Mr. Trump’s guilt, which the New York jury may decide as soon as this week, was a stark departure from the president’s directive to avoid discussing his rival’s felony charges. Mr. Biden has said next to nothing on the subject, to avoid feeding the false Trump-inspired narrative that he ordered prosecutors to bring criminal charges against his predecessor.
The moment illustrated how difficult it may be for the Biden campaign to navigate its response to a potential verdict, with outside allies far more willing than his disciplined operation in Wilmington, Del., to lob frontal attacks at Mr. Trump over his legal peril.
The news conference’s intended focus was to draw attention to Mr. Trump’s actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which are the subject of another federal criminal case pending against him. In Manhattan, Mr. Trump is charged with falsifying business records related to a hush-money payment to a porn star before the 2016 election.
Mr. De Niro, whose voice narrates the campaign’s latest ad, appeared alongside Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone, two former U.S. Capitol Police officers who have criticized Mr. Trump over his role in the Jan. 6 mob violence.
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Source: nytimes.com
