Biden wants to win votes by causing some laughs at Trump’s expense

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden wants to win votes by getting some laughs at Donald Trump’s expense, unleashing ridicule aimed at upsetting the former president and reminding the country of its mistakes.

Like a comedian perfecting his routine, the Democratic president has been testing and expanding his jokes in recent weeks. He began by criticizing the financial problems of his Republican opponent, and now Biden regularly mocks Trump’s hairstyle, his pampered upbringing and his attempt to make a few extra dollars by selling a special edition of the Bible.

Biden uses humor to paint Trump as a buffoon unworthy of the Oval Office, but stops short of turning the election into a laughing matter.

Sometimes you find that a few jokes can energize an audience even more than a major political victory and divert valuable attention from an opponent who otherwise hogs the spotlight even while stuck in a New York courtroom on his first day. criminal trial.

The latest example came at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday night. After years in which Trump constantly accused Biden of being “sleepy” and mocked his age — Biden is 81, Trump is 77 — the Democrat returned the insult after the Republican appeared to fall asleep in court.

Biden nicknamed his rival “Mr. Sleepy,” also saying: “Of course, the 2024 election is in full swing and yes, age is an issue,” he added. “I am an adult competing against a 6-year-old child.”

Trump did not seem to appreciate the jokes and posted on his social network that the dinner was “really bad” and that Biden was “an absolute disaster.”

But jokes at the annual gala event, which also features a professional comedian — this year it was Colin Jost of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” — are nothing new. The real meat of Biden’s routine comes during campaign speeches in which he spends a few moments criticizing Trump between policies and legislative achievements.

“Remember when he was trying to deal with Covid? He suggested injecting some bleach into your veins,” Biden told a union Wednesday, describing Trump’s guidance from the White House during the pandemic. “It failed him. “Everything went to his hair.”

Biden rarely references Trump’s court cases, but jokes about financial problems that began shortly after the former president was ordered to pay $454 million in a civil case in New York.

“Just the other day,” Biden said at a fundraiser in Dallas last month, “a defeated-looking guy came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, I need your help. I am overwhelmed by debt. I don’t have anything’. I had to say, ‘Donald, I can’t help you.'”