De Niro Stumps for Biden: ‘Trump Will End Democracy’

President Biden often argues that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. He and his campaign had not, however, said that reelecting Trump would end democracy altogether. Until recently.

Robert DeNiro warns that Trump threatens “democracy”

Outside the Manhattan courtroom where the former president was on trial, at a press conference organized by the Biden-Harris campaign, actor Robert De Niro rhetorically ran ahead of Biden, making his dire warning about the future of representative government explicit.

“Under Trump,” the celebrity surrogate said that the government Abraham Lincoln described as of, for, and by the people “will perish from the earth.” The rights secured by those the nation recently remembered on Memorial Day, the actor added, well, “you can kiss these freedoms goodbye.” 

“And elections – forget about it. That’s over, that’s done,” he insisted. “If he gets in, I can tell you right now, he will never leave.”

De Niro struck a tone indistinguishable from the “Trump Resistance” types who have populated the airwaves of MSNBC for the better part of a decade. The democracy rhetoric was certainly a continuation of a favorite Biden theme. It was also an undeniable escalation on behalf of the president.

A Biden spox backs DeNiro up

A spokesman for the Biden-Harris campaign, James Singer, did not back away from the De Niro warning, telling RealClearPolitics that democracy was indeed under assault in a manner not seen since the Civil War “because of Donald Trump.”

“Don’t just take our word for it or Robert De Niro’s – take Donald Trump’s: He is promising to rule as a dictator on ‘day one,’ terminate the Constitution, punish those who stand against him, condone violence done on his behalf, and put his own revenge and retribution ahead of what is best for America,” Singer told RCP.

A sign of the times: Both major presidential campaigns now argue that the other could spell an end to democracy. Meanwhile, two-thirds of the country, per a recent Ipsos\Reuters survey, fear the prospect of post-election violence. The raw tension was on full display in New York. De Niro was nearly drowned out by pro-Trump protestors. They chanted, “Fuck Joe Biden.”

It was the exact inverse of what De Niro had himself first said at the Tony Awards. Six years ago, at the Tony Awards held at Radio City Music Hall, not far from where he spoke Tuesday, the elderly actor told a crowd of well-heeled celebrities that saying “Down with Trump” was no longer sufficient. Instead, De Niro said to cheers, “It is ‘Fuck Trump.’”

A departure for Biden

Even at his most colorful, Biden has never gone that far. And other than a few personal jabs, he has directed his campaign to avoid commenting on Trump’s legal trial for fear of feeding the impression that the proceedings were part of a larger attempt to hamstring the former president. But the star of Goodfellas, introduced to the press by Biden communications director Michael Tyler, was all the Trump campaign needed.

“The Biden folks have finally done it,” Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the campaign, said at a rival press conference held moments after De Niro wrapped his remarks. “After months of saying that politics had nothing to do with this trial, they showed up and made a campaign event out of a lower Manhattan trial day for President Trump.”

While this brinksmanship will likely continue until Election Day, with both campaigns increasingly accusing the other of seeding the destruction of the republic, neither did anything to settle a more immediate question: whether voters outside the extremes actually care.

“As a Biden campaign theme, I think the threat to democracy pitch is a bust,” Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican and frequent Trump critic, told the New York Times earlier this year. “Jan. 6 will be four years old by the election. People have processed it, one way or another. Biden needs fresh material, a new attack, rather than kicking a dead political horse.”

Democrats don’t want a referendum on Biden’s performance

Others argue that the democracy argument is the most essential one Biden can make. Democrats are desperate to avoid a referendum on the president’s first term as inflation lingers and his low poll numbers stagnate. The Biden campaign would much rather turn 2024 into a choice between Biden and Trump, a binary between normalcy and chaos.

“The case against Trump is most clear on the democracy question,” said Matt Bennett, a veteran of presidential campaigns and co-founder of the liberal group Third Way. He added, “Subtlety isn’t going to work here. People need to be hit over the head with it.”

On this front, even after leaving office, Trump has given Democrats plenty to work with from his warning earlier this year that if he doesn’t win, “I’m not sure that you’ll ever have another election in this country,” to quipping two weeks ago about serving a third term. All of this is overwrought, Republicans say, classic “TDS,” or Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Democracy really is on trial

Trump allies reveled in the irony of the Biden campaign crowing about democracy just outside the courtroom where the president’s rival was standing trial. The court cases, they argue, have less to do with justice than a charade to handicap Trump right before an election. Tweeted Utah Sen. Mike Lee, “tyrants imprison their political opponents.”

“Democracy is indeed on trial,” Stephen Miller, a senior advisor to Trump, told RCP. “Joe Biden and the Democrat party are ruthless authoritarians trying to impose left-wing fascism on America. They want to jail Trump because they know who is the only one who can stop them and restore democracy and freedom in America.”

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.