The president appeared to slip by suggesting he wanted his predecessor put behind bars, but revised his comment to say he meant locked up “politically.”
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President Biden at a local Democratic campaign office in Concord, N.H., on Tuesday. He has tried to avoid fueling Republicans’ claims that he is prosecuting his adversary.
President Biden said on Tuesday that former President Donald J. Trump was a threat to democracy and should be locked up, before quickly amending his comment to say he meant locked up “politically.”
Mr. Biden was speaking at a local Democratic campaign office in Concord, N.H., when he appeared to slip by suggesting he wanted his predecessor put behind bars. While Mr. Trump as a candidate and president has regularly used such language about his opponents, Mr. Biden typically refrains from that kind of talk to avoid fueling Republicans’ claims that he is prosecuting his adversary.
“We got to lock him up,” Mr. Biden said at the campaign office, where he dropped by after a speech on health care elsewhere in Concord.
Seeming to catch himself, he quickly added: “Politically lock him up. Lock him out. That’s what we have to do.”
Mr. Biden was making an argument he has for years about Mr. Trump’s lack of commitment to the Constitution. “Our democracy is at stake,” he said. “Think about it. Think about what would happen if Donald Trump wins this election.”
Mr. Trump’s campaign quickly seized on the comment as proof of his contention that the various prosecutions against him were simply partisan persecution.
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Source: nytimes.com
