Biden fundraises off Trump arrest
US President Joe Biden leveraged his chief Republican rival Donald Trump’s legal troubles to raise funds for his reelection campaign in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday.
“Apropos of nothing, I think today’s a great day to give to my campaign,” a message on the president’s account read, accompanied by a link to Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue and a graphic of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris with “Let’s finish the job! – Joe” scrawled beneath their portraits.
The post was made at the same time that Trump, Biden’s predecessor and primary challenger, was being booked at Fulton County Jail in Georgia on charges of interfering with the 2020 election, a fact remarked upon by several news outlets.
Conservative commentators including Kyle Becker and Ben Shapiro weighed in on Biden’s fundraising tweet, suggesting it supported Trump’s claims of election interference.
Apropos of nothing, I think today's a great day to give to my campaign. https://t.co/Tj5cURqgQT
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 24, 2023
Biden had posted the same fundraiser-graphic combo on Wednesday, also with a veiled reference to Trump, urging voters to “compare me to the alternative” – rather than “the Almighty” – “and then donate.”
Biden was not the only candidate to fundraise off the Republican frontrunner’s latest perp walk. Trump himself posted a fundraiser link with images of his Fulton County mugshot alongside the words “never surrender” and “election interference” – a reference to both the charges he faces in that jurisdiction and the accusations he has leveled at the Biden administration for allegedly masterminding the lawfare campaign against him.
Even Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., put up mugshot t-shirts for sale as part of the ‘Free Trump Collection’, with all proceeds supposed to go to the former president’s legal defense.
Congressional Republicans began their investigation into the Fulton County charges on Wednesday, as Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan argued that the latest prosecution of the former president was, like the others that have preceded it, politically motivated.
Biden’s reelection campaign has been dogged by suggestions – even from within his own party – that the oldest president ever to serve in the White House is too old to run again. Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term, and has been known to joke about his own age to reporters. Nearly seven out of ten Americans polled by NBC in June expressed concern that he could be mentally and physically unfit for office.
