“We gotta lock him up!”
That’s what President Joe Biden said about Donald Trump during a campaign stop in Concord on Tuesday, setting off a firestorm of reaction.
Biden made the comments at the state Democratic Party headquarters after giving a speech at nearby NHTI community college.
“If I said this five years ago, you’d lock me up: We gotta lock him up,” the 81-year-old outgoing president told a small group of Democrats. Among them was their nominee for governor, Joyce Craig, who greeted the “lock him up” comment with applause.
After the applause, Biden added, “Politically lock him up. Lock him out, that’s what we’ve got to do.”
Biden’s visit to the Granite State already inspired head-scratching as to how it was supposed to help local Democrats, particularly after he tried to kill the state’s First in the Nation presidential primary earlier this year. His over-the-top anti-Trump commentary isn’t likely to help.
After the remark went viral, Axios political reporter Alex Thompson posted, “Noting this could be politically unhelpful to Harris, a former Biden admin official texts me: ‘we gotta lock Joe up.’”
Thompson quickly followed up with another post: “A counterpoint from a current Biden admin official: ‘For better or worse, no one is listening to him anymore and his words have little power and less reach. It’s a blip.’”
Contacted by NHJournal about Biden’s comments and her applause, Craig declined to comment.
But Granite State Republicans had plenty to say.
“Craig should follow Biden into retirement,” said NHGOP Chairman Chris Ager. “Neither has a grasp of what Granite Staters need.”
State Rep. Joe Sweeney (R-Salem), executive director of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, posted, “I guarantee you none of the NH Dems in the room – (some prominent ones lined up in the back!) – objected to this assault on our democracy.”
And New Hampshire native turned Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said that 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 “Lock Her Up” chant emerged as a staple of Trump campaign rallies in 2016, a reference to Hillary Clinton and her many legal scandals. At the time, many Democrats condemned the chant and the suggestion Trump’s political opponent should be jailed, as a threat to democracy and a violation of norms.
Biden’s “Lock him up” quip wasn’t his only Granite State gaffe. During remarks touting his administration’s policies on prescription drugs at NHTI, the elderly president wandered onto the topic of bipartisanship in the days of old with Republicans like South Carolina segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond.
Biden said that when he was first elected to the U.S. Senate, “Strom Thurman and all those guys were still there, but at least — honest with God — you could talk to him.” Biden added that he was asked to give the eulogy at Thurmond’s funeral and he praised the segregationist’s voting record later in his career.
“My generic point is people change, but these guys [current Republicans] just keep getting worse.”
Later in his remarks, the president claimed other world leaders “pull me aside” to warn him about Trump. “Joe, he can’t win — my democracy is at stake.”
Biden, accompanied by progressive U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made their pitch for the administration’s policies on prescription drugs as well.
“Prescription drugs are so damn high,” Biden said in his speech. “It’s because Big Pharma is charging you exorbitant prices for the prescriptions you so badly need.”
Sander stuck with his longtime script: Corporate greed is the problem.
“If pharmaceutical companies refuse to substantially lower prescription drug prices in our country and end their greed, we will do everything within our power to end it for them,” he warned.
Craig was not on hand for the NHTI speech, nor did she greet Biden when he landed at the airport, as U.S. Reps. Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas did.
Unfortunately for her, she was caught on video clapping in response to Biden’s call for Trump to be jailed, and that video has gone viral.
