Joe Biden was at a New Hampshire campaign on Tuesday where he targeted Donald Trump by saying “We gotta lock him up”. He soon altered his statement to, “Politically lock him up”. He went on to backtrack further, saying, “Lock him out, that's what we've got to do.”
According to Joe Biden, American democracy would be at stake if Republican candidate Donald Trump beats Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
In 2016, when Donald Trump ran for President, he presided over rallies where people chanted, “lock her up” referring to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. He was never found hushing up people from these slogans and according to a fact check by CNN, he also falsely claimed that he did not make any “lock her up” calls then.
In contrast, this year, during Kamala Harris's rallies, spectators chanted, “lock him up”, to which she responded, “The courts are going to take care of that.”
In a statement, the national press secretary for Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, Karoline Leavitt said, “Joe Biden just admitted the truth: he and Kamala's plan all along has been to politically persecute their opponent President Trump because they can't beat him fair and square.”
“The Harris-Biden Admin is the real threat to democracy. We call on Kamala Harris to condemn Joe Biden's disgraceful remark”, it said.
It is notable that throughout this year's campaigning, Trump has been threatening to prosecute or punish perceived enemies once he is in office.
Biden said, “This is a guy who also wants to replace every civil servant, every single one,” adding that “He thinks he has a right under the Supreme Court ruling on immunity to be able, if need be, if it was the case, to actually eliminate - physically eliminate, shoot, kill - someone who he believes would be a threat to him.”
The Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken during their term in office. However, this ruling has raised concerns, highlighted by Justice Sonia Sotomayor's dissenting opinion. She warned that this immunity could potentially shield extreme abuses of power, such as ordering the assassination of a political rival, from accountability.
