Why Dems Shouldn't be Shy about Trump's Conviction
Too many in the party are allowing Trump and the Right to define a major moment in the campaign
Wherein Dan Pfeiffer, Senior Advisor to the President of the United States, Barack Obama argues that other Democrats, but not President Biden, should "take the gloves off" with Trump and Trumpists.
That message, brought to you by Republicans from 2020 still has legs, stronger, longer legs in 2024 than in 2020. I would address it: Dear President Biden.
Pfeiffer says the president should take the gloves off in the first debate in late June. I think he should counter this right now:
After the verdict came in, Trump went right to the cameras to spew a firehose’s worth of lies about the case. In an obviously coordinated effort, most major Republican officeholders put out statements slamming the verdict and reaffirming their support for Trump within minutes of the news breaking. MAGA media personalities went into overdrive, firing up the base with often dangerous rhetoric.
As Trump had a bigger button than Kim Jong Un, so President Biden has a bigger hose with which to spew than does Trump today.
The president should give multiple campaign speeches right now before rabid audiences of Democrats in the largest, most raucous venues he can. I agree with Pfeiffer that,
...if you want people to know something, you have to tell them and then tell them again and again. Once you are so sick of saying something that you might puke, you probably need to say it a couple more times.
Over and over again,
He's a criminal!
He's a rapist!
He says he will be a dictator on Day One! And he will be. Unless we stop him.
President Biden's speech, given over and over again, should be modeled on FDR's campaign speech in Madison Square Garden on October 31, 1936.
In 1932 the issue was the restoration of American democracy; and the American people were in a mood to win. They did win. In 1936 the issue is the preservation of their victory. Again they are in a mood to win. Again they will win.
President Biden should take the gloves off against Trump of course, but also against MAGA extremist voters, MAGA Republican officeholders (there are none other), and the Supreme Court.
Dan Pfeiffer writes that Trump's "bizarre, rambling press conference, where he whined" was "at the expense of a message that actually persuades voters..."
Persuade voters? Trump doesn't have to persuade voters. He has got the election won right now if the election were held today. He is the favorite to win in an electoral landslide right now. He has raised $50M since his conviction.
No! The president should go right after those unpersuadables bare-knuckled. I don't want their votes, those of the nearly 800 who were convicted in the Jan. 6 insurrection. They are criminals. Their criminal Leader has said he will pardon them. I don't want the votes of the millions of them, and the hundreds of MAGA lawmakers who,
...attack the integrity and honor of American Government itself. Those who suggest that, are already aliens to the spirit of American democracy. Let them emigrate and try their lot under some foreign flag in which they have more confidence.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.
Against them,...we have only just begun to fight.
...For these things, too, and for a multitude of others like them, we have only just begun to fight.
FDR was winning in 1936. He was winning BIG. We are LOSING. We will not win wasting our time and money persuading the unpersuadable. We will win by persuading the persuadable in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Michigan,
Pfeiffer:
Okay, Donald Trump’s been convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide his extramarital affair from voters during the 2016 election.
It seems like a big deal, right?
Well, only if we make it.
Democrats took a decidedly different approach. The President did not appear before the cameras, and his campaign released a written statement. Many Democrats stayed silent, and those who did speak tended to say something relatively anodyne about how we should respect the rule of law.
... I believe Democrats should take a more aggressive stance than they have in the last 24 hours.
I disagree with his old friend David Axelrod.
I don’t disagree with this advice that my old friend David Axelrod offered in an interview with the New York Times about how Biden should address the conviction:
I may be alone in this, but I think he should address the convictions with some sobriety. It was a sad and stunning day for our country, but we’re a country of laws, not men. That is a bedrock principle of our Constitution and our democracy, and even presidents are subject to it.
He’s a serious person addressing a serious matter. The President doesn’t need too much mustard on the hot dog.
No! We want mustard on the dog. We want the hottest mustard possible layered on the dog so thickly you only taste the mustard.
Now for the rest of the party…
