Have you heard of Trump? Biden attempts humor on the campaign trail

Washington: President Joe Biden is out to win votes by having a few laughs at Donald Trump’s expense, with the joke being aimed at getting under the former president’s thin skin and reminding the country of his mistakes.

Like a comedian improvising his routine, the Democratic president has been testing and expanding his jokes over the past few weeks. It started with him joking about his Republican opponent’s financial problems, and now Biden regularly jokes about Trump’s cropped hair, his pampered upbringing and his attempt to make some extra money by selling a special edition of the Bible. Let’s blow.

The jokes are the latest attempt to break the code on how to clap back at Trump, whose own outrageous comedy skits have redefined the boundaries of what is acceptable in modern politics. Very few have had so much luck, whether trying to outdo or flirt with Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

“It’s an ongoing challenge,” said Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama. Trump “is not a person who plays by the rules.” So it is up to Biden to adopt and play by the new rules of engagement.

As of now, Biden is trying to thread a delicate needle to boost his chances of a second term. He uses humor to portray Trump as the incompetent clown of the Oval Office, but doesn’t shy away from turning the presidential election into a laughing matter.

Sometimes they discover that a few jokes can excite the audience even more than a major policy victory and draw valuable attention from an opponent who would otherwise be in the spotlight despite being stuck in a New York courtroom for his first criminal trial. Lives in.

The latest example came at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday night. After years of Trump repeatedly calling Biden a “sleeper” and mocking his age (Biden is 81, Trump is 77), Biden responded with an insult after Trump appeared to be napping in court. Took revenge.

Biden gave his opponent the nickname “Sleepy Don,” adding, “I like it. I might use it again.”

“Obviously the 2024 election is in full swing and yes, age is an issue,” he said. “I’m a grown man running against a 6-year-old.”

Trump did not appreciate this and posted on his social media platforms that the dinner was “really bad” and that Biden was “a complete disaster.”

But jokes at the annual black-tie affair, including one involving a professional comedian (this year it was Colin Jost of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”), are nothing new. The real part of Biden’s routine comes during campaign speeches in which he devotes a few moments to taking a dig at Trump between recitations of policy proposals and legislative accomplishments.

“Remember when he was trying to deal with Covid? He suggested: Inject a little bleach into your vein,” Biden told a labor union on Wednesday, describing Trump’s guidance from the White House during the pandemic. “She lost it. It all went on her hair.

In Tampa, Florida, a day earlier, he attacked Trump for the Supreme Court decision that overturned abortion protections – three justices nominated by Trump voted in the majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – and then former The president’s advocacy drew attention to a $60 “God Bless the USA” Bible.

“He called the Dobbs decision a ‘miracle,'” Biden said of Trump. “Maybe it’s coming from the Bible he’s trying to sell. Wow! I almost wanted to buy it just to see what was in it.”

Biden rarely mentions Trump’s court cases, but jokes about financial problems that began soon after the former president was ordered to pay $454 million in a civil case in New York.

“Just the other day, a defeated-looking man came up to me and said, ‘Mr.'” Biden said at a fundraiser in Dallas last month. Mr. President, I need your help. I am being burdened with debt. I am completely destroyed.’ I had to say, ‘Donald, I can’t help you.’

Even when Biden tries his hand at humor, he rarely strays far from talking about policies. He likes to note that he signed $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure legislation into law – as his opponent failed to do so despite repeatedly holding events at the White House to drum up support for a similar idea. , which was never completed.

“He promised ‘Infrastructure Week’ every week for four years and never built anything big,” Biden told a group of laughing union members this month.

The dilemma is whether Trump, who tells voters that the entire American political system is hopelessly corrupt, can get away with name-calling that would have an adverse effect on other candidates. During his rallies, Trump parodied Biden as a frail old man who can’t get down the stairs after giving a brief speech, and he calls the president “crooked” and “a crazy dictator.”

The Republican campaign said the insults would only intensify as Biden tries to give them a taste of their own medicine.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung, referring to robot vacuums, said Biden is “moving his feet like a short-circuited Roomba” while failing to address “the border is out of control” and “runaway inflation.”

Rick Tyler, who worked on the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said voters have double standards because expectations are different for Trump, who first rose to fame as a real estate developer and reality star. . TV show “The Apprentice.”

“Celebrities don’t really have standards, and Trump is on the same path,” Tyler said. For a politician going against Trump, “It’s like trying to play the game with the wrong equipment.”

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., had to fight hard in the Republican primary in 2016. After Rubio joked about Trump having “small hands”—suggesting that his other half was also small—Trump pushed back by saying, “I guarantee you there’s no problem.”

“No one has ever beaten Trump by getting in the ring with him,” said Alex Conant, Rubio’s campaign communications director.

Karen Finney, who advised Democrat Hillary Clinton in the White House in 2016, said Trump can push opponents to “communicate on his terms, not your terms.”

“It’s something where you have to have a balance,” he said. “You can spend all day just answering.”

But if Trump’s humor is obvious, Biden tries to get the most out of it by sometimes being subtle. During a Pittsburgh stop earlier this month, Biden talked elliptically about Trump’s trial, betting his audience was already in on the joke.

Trump is “a little busy right now,” he said.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – The Associated Press)