Inside The Biden Campaign’s Pivot To A ‘guerrilla-style’ Event At Trump’s Trial

NEW YORK — After six weeks of staying clear of the courthouse at 100 Centre Street, Joe Biden’s campaign on Tuesday showed up to hold their own event — a dramatic reversal of the president’s strategy in the final days of Donald Trump’s trial.

The change comes as Biden tries to catch up with Trump, who has been leading in most key battleground state polls even as he has been mostly confined to New York for the duration of the trial.

Much like Trump has done through part of the trial, Biden’s campaign team brought their own set of surrogates to parade before the mob of television cameras that have camped out outside the courthouse each day to hear from Trump’s allies.

Asked by a reporter why the president’s reelection campaign decided to hold an event at Trump’s trial, his communications director had a simple answer: “Because you all are here,” Michael Tyler said.

“You’ve been incessantly covering this, day in and day out,” Tyler continued, later saying the Biden team would seek to remind voters of “the stakes of this election.”

More so than any other day of the trial — fueled by the Biden campaign's involvement — the courthouse and its immediate vicinity on Tuesday became a center of litigation for something besides the hush money trial: the November election.

The Biden campaign decided over the weekend to authorize a "guerrilla-style" campaign event near the courthouse in an effort to break through the non-stop cable news coverage of the Trump trial, according to two people familiar with plans and granted anonymity to describe them.

Biden campaign officials acknowledged that holding the surprise press conference was a change in tactics, but said it was not a change of their overall strategy. They also made the decision over the weekend in Wilmington, Delaware, where the Biden campaign is headquartered, to plan more surprise events in the weeks ahead. They plan to be "nimble and creative," according to one of the people with knowledge of the strategy, as a means to go on offense and break through the media cycle.

On Tuesday, that meant bringing out actor Robert De Niro.

As a car alarm rang out and a group of nearby Trump supporters shouted loudly outside the courthouse Tuesday morning, De Niro, who recently voiced a campaign ad for Biden, and former police officers Michael Fanone and Harry Dunn, who responded to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attacks, railed against Trump before the crowd of cameras.

De Niro, who has made no secret of his distaste for Trump, was eager to bracket the moment with a stunt news conference, the people familiar with the plans said. But the Biden surrogates seemed careful not to directly mention the ongoing legal case against Trump — the very issue that has resulted in a month-and-a half-long media bonanza for the former president.

Instead, while introducing the three men, Tyler said the president was looking forward to talking to Trump about three other topics at their June 27 debate — abortion, threats to democracy and economic policies for working families.

“That's what this campaign is going to be focused on and talking about over the course of the next month,” Tyler said.

Stashed in a white trash bag on the ground near the microphones was a blue Biden-Harris placard, a prop that was apparently never set up ahead of the campaign’s press event.

Many close to Biden have expressed private frustration that the media is obsessed with Trump, making it difficult at times to garner attention for the incumbent. But the people familiar with the decision disputed that the stunt was born out of desperation, even as Biden has narrowly but consistently trailed Trump in the polls.

Trump’s press team stood in the crowd of reporters and watched as the Biden surrogates addressed the media, quickly jumping at the opportunity to rebut as De Niro and the others walked away, chased by a crowd of cameras.

“President Trump’s numbers continue to rise, and the best that Biden can do is roll out a washed up actor,” said Trump adviser Jason Miller.

When a reporter asked about the Biden campaign’s decision to make the most of all the press gathered for Trump’s trial, Karoline Leavitt, another Trump spokesperson, muttered “they’re pathetic” as she walked away.

The Trump campaign followed with its own press conference during the lunch break, that time featuring Trump’s sons Don Jr. and Eric — and daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee co-Chair Lara Trump. They were among the Trump supporters who have attended the trial to lend their support, including some two dozen members of Congress, notably House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Sens. Rick Scott and J.D. Vance.

Trump himself seemed to take note of the Biden stunt — with someone posting on his Truth Social account just before returning to court from lunch a video of De Niro arguing with a Trump supporter as he walked away from the press conference.

“You are gangsters,” De Niro shouted at what appeared to be Trump supporters yelling at him, with one man replying that De Niro was “washed up.”

“Fuck you,” the video captured De Niro yelling back as he was led away.

Inside the courthouse, meanwhile, Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche sought to undermine the prosecution’s case, slamming the state’s key witness — Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer — as dishonest and a money hungry “thief.”

“He’s literally like an MVP of liars,” Blanche told the jury, later adding that Cohen is “the GLOAT — the greatest liar of all time.”

Prosecutors spent hours Tuesday — with the judge keeping the jury later than usual — reiterating their evidence in an attempt to show that Trump was in on the plans, as told by Cohen earlier in the trial.

At times laughing and frequently employing snark, assistant district attorney Joshua Steinglass walked jurors again through a flurry of exhibits, acknowledging that Cohen was not their ideal witness, but was close to Trump at the time.

"We didn’t choose Michael Cohen to be our witness. We didn’t pick him up at the witness store,” Steinglass said. “The defendant chose Michael Cohen to be his fixer because he was willing to lie and cheat on Mr. Trump’s behalf. Mr. Trump chose Mr. Cohen for the same qualities that his attorneys now urge you to reject his testimony because of.”

While the trial is expected to continue at least through Wednesday and Thursday, Biden and his campaign still do not intend to directly address the trial until a verdict is reached.

The president's first remarks about the trial are expected to be about the need to respect the outcome and will not be overtly political. And they will likely be given in an informal White House setting — like answering a question from a reporter on the South Lawn — rather than in some sort of official address, according to the two people familiar with the plans.