President Joe Biden on Tuesday echoed language used by former President Donald Trump in the past, saying of the former president that “we need to lock him up.”
Biden said at a campaign event in New Hampshire that Trump’s policies are so “bizarre” and dangerous that if he had warned about them five years ago “you would lock me up.”
“We need to lock him up,” Biden said to applause from the small crowd before appearing to catch himself and adding, “lock him up politically.”
“Lock him out,” Biden continued. “That’s what we have to do.”
A White House official later said Biden’s two immediate clarifications — “politically” locking Trump in and “shutting him out” — are how the president’s comments should be interpreted. Biden spoke about how voters should think about the stakes of the election, the official added.
The Trump campaign responded Tuesday evening by challenging Vice President Kamala Harris to condemn Biden’s comment.
“Joe Biden just admitted the truth: his and Kamala’s plan all along has been to politically persecute their opponent, President Trump, because they cannot beat him fair and square,” campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“The Harris-Biden administrator is the real threat to democracy. We call on Kamala Harris to condemn Joe Biden’s disgraceful comment,” she added.
Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, also criticized the comments about X.
“President Trump is the only candidate shot in the head in a botched assassination attempt,” Cheung said, referring to the July 13 shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“What a piece…Biden is,” Cheung added.
Both Biden and Harris have condemned the political violence following a pair of attempts to assassinate Trump.
Biden’s comments sparked backlash from other Trump allies.
Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative activist group Turning Point USA, said on X: “This is the ‘story’ of why the Democratic machine worked feverishly to imprison Trump. It was all intentional.”
Biden’s comments are a distraction for the Harris campaign at a critical stage of a nail-biting race, and they come as she is already making the calculated decision not to appear on the trail with him before Election Day.
At her rallies, Harris has generally stopped short of “lock him up” chants aimed at Trump, saying the courts would handle that.
Trump was convicted in May of 34 felonies for falsifying company records in a case in New York state. His sentencing is scheduled for next month after the elections. Federal prosecutors led by Special Counsel Jack Smith have charged Trump in two separate cases; Trump has pleaded not guilty in both cases and denied wrongdoing.
Chants of “lock her up” aimed at 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton became popular among Trump supporters during that election, with Trump sometimes standing by as the crowd chanted and other times agreeing “they need to lock her up.”
Chants of “lock him up” were answered by a crowd at the Democratic National Convention in August this year, when Clinton spoke out in support of Harris.
Trump, meanwhile, has not shied away from threatening to prosecute his political opponents.
In August, he reposted doctored images of Biden, Harris and other political opponents dressed in orange prison uniforms with the caption: “HOW TO ACTUALLY ‘FIX’ THE SYSTEM.”
Trump also referred to Democrats and those who investigated him as “the enemy within,” claiming in an interview that aired this month that they pose a threat greater than those of China, Russia and other countries.
He has regularly portrayed Harris and Clinton as criminals. Trump called Harris a “criminal” at a campaign rally in Aurora, Colorado, this month.
Biden’s comments came during his second stop of the day on Tuesday, during a visit to the New Hampshire Democratic Party headquarters to boost the party’s candidates in both the open gubernatorial and congressional races. There, and during an earlier stop in Concord, Biden spoke in somber terms about what was at stake in the presidential contest.
“I’m not one for exaggerations, but there is a group out there — the MAGA Republicans — who have an anti-democratic attitude toward the way the Constitution functions,” he said during the campaign office visit.
Speaking of Trump, he said: “If you don’t believe it now, you’ll learn that if he wins, it’s a serious, serious problem. So folks, the first point I want to make to you is that we have to do that. We have to, we have to win. We must win, not only for ourselves, but also for our children, and for the children who are not even born yet. It makes a significant difference.”
At the earlier event in Concord, Biden referred to private conversations with world leaders who he said were deeply concerned about Trump’s return to power.
“They’ll quietly pull me aside, one leader after another, and say, ‘Joe, he can’t win. My democracy is at stake. My democracy is at stake. ”
Biden has had a minimal presence on the campaign trail, with a recent trip to Germany and others to survey the damage from Hurricane Helene also competing for his time.
The main event of the day was not technically a campaign stop, as Biden appeared with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., intended to focus on lowering prescription drug prices. Still, he delivered a sharper, if also unscripted, message to Trump about his “drafts of plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act of 2010.
“I love this man. I try to be a really good guy. I don’t let my Irish get the best of me,” he joked. “I’ve been hearing that concept of a plan for almost eight years now, a concept of a plan. What the heck is a concept? He has no idea about anything.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
