Former President Donald J. Trump posted a video on his social media site on Friday showing an image of President Biden with his hands and feet tied together.
Mr. Trump posted the video on Truth Social early Friday afternoon with the line that it was filmed on Long Island on Thursday as Mr. Trump attended the memorial service for a murdered New York City police officer in Massapequa Park, NY. The video shows two moving trucks decorated with flags and stickers in support of Mr. Trump. The picture of Mr. Biden can be seen on the tailgate of the second vehicle.
Macabre images targeting Mr. Trump’s perceived enemies often circulate online among right-wing provocateurs and pro-Trump groups and, in some cases, have been presented at conservative conferences. Photos of trucks bearing similar images of the handcuffed Mr. Biden have been shared on social media, and online retailers are selling vehicle stickers featuring the image.
Mr. Trump’s promotion of the video with the image reflects the increasingly vitriolic and personal attacks he has made against Mr. Biden – for example, he said in a speech this month that “everything Joe Biden touches is in Dirt turned,” even though he used it as a slur — and it expands on a record of the former president displaying violent images on his social media accounts.
A Biden campaign representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said: “The picture was in the back of a pickup truck driving down the highway,” adding: “Democrats and deranged lunatics have not only committed despicable violence against President Trump and his… “Family called out, they are actually using the justice system as a weapon against him.”
The video could still be found on Mr. Trump’s Truth Social page late Friday evening.
The Trump campaign has repeatedly cited Democratic statements from past years to defend Mr. Trump’s rhetoric. Mr. Cheung on Friday referred to a 2018 statement by Mr. Biden in which he said, referring to Mr. Trump, “If we were in high school, I would take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.” ” Mr. Biden was responding to comments Mr. Trump made about women on an audio tape related to the show “Access Hollywood.”
Mr. Trump has previously released doctored photos and videos showing him physically attacking political opponents, particularly focusing on Mr. Biden over the last year. The former president, for example, has repeatedly shared videos of himself hitting Mr. Biden with golf balls. Mr. Trump also posted a photo last year of himself holding a baseball bat next to Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who is prosecuting Mr. Trump in connection with a hush-money payment to a porn star during the 2016 campaign.
Mr. Trump has also used increasingly authoritarian language on the campaign trail, repeatedly saying that migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and calling his political opponents “vermin” who must be “exterminated” in a Veterans Day speech last year. “
This month, Mr Trump said that some migrants were “not people” and, amid a debate over the auto industry, that the country would face a “bloodbath” if he lost the election. A few days later, in a radio interview, he attacked Jewish Democrats, saying that Jews who vote for Democrats hate their religion and Israel.
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2024-03-30 04:41:16
www.nytimes.com