Democratic strategist David Axelrod ripped the Biden campaign for actor Robert De Niro’s appearance outside the Manhattan courthouse this week, calling the event “ill-timed” in a new opinion piece.
Axelrod took aim in an opinion piece published Wednesday on CNN, asking why President Biden’s campaign team thought it would be a “good idea” to have De Niro speak outside the courthouse where former President Trump’s hush money trial has been taking place.
“Who thought this was a good idea? I love De Niro’s work and agree with many of his comments. But given the arm’s length distance the White House has kept from the whole sordid mess at 100 Centre Street, they seemed grossly ill-timed,” Axelrod wrote.
Axelrod wrote that De Niro’s appearance, including being shouted at by nearby Trump supporters, ended up becoming the story as the jurors were preparing to go into deliberations.
“The stated goal was to highlight Trump’s trespasses on democracy and general unfitness for office, but the scene quickly devolved into a shouting match between De Niro and a small crowd of hecklers who roasted him as he roasted Trump. Great fodder for ‘Saturday Night Live,’ but not necessarily the campaign,” he wrote.
Axelrod concluded the piece by writing, “whoever at Biden HQ directed De Niro’s performance Tuesday probably should have left it on the cutting room floor.”
The Biden campaign has largely avoided talking directly about Trump’s legal woes, especially during the former president’s hush money trial. Biden has made few references to Trump’s court battles, like quipping during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner about how Trump has had some “stormy weather” recently.
But Tuesday, the Biden campaign brought De Niro and two former police officers who served at the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot to speak outside the Manhattan courthouse, where closing arguments in the hush money case were underway.
When asked why they were holding a political event outside Trump’s criminal trial, Biden’s communication director Michael Tyler said “you all are here,” referring to the large media presence surrounding the courthouse.
“It’s easy to talk about the choice in this election when the entire news media is here day in and day out,” Tyler said.
De Niro, who filmed an ad for the Biden campaign last week, blasted the former president while Trump supporters heckled him in the background.
“I don’t mean to scare you. No, no, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you. If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss away these freedoms that we take for granted, and elections, forget about it. … He will never leave,” he said.
Trump criticized De Niro shortly afterward, saying he “never knew how small, both mentally and physically, Wacko Former Actor Robert De Niro was.”
The former president is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The Hill has reached out to the Biden campaign for comment.