Donald Trump is being accused of “inciting political violence” after posting a video on social media showing an image of President Joe Biden with his hands and feet bound in the back of a pickup truck.
The video, shared on Trump’s social media platform Truth Social on Friday, drew immediate condemnation by the Biden campaign, with its campaign’s communications director drawing comparisons to the violent attack on the Capitol by a Trump-loving mob three years ago.
“Trump is regularly inciting political violence and it’s time people take him seriously,” spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement Friday. “Just ask the Capitol police officers who were attacked protecting our democracy on January 6.”
The video shows a passing pickup truck adorned with “Trump 2024” signs and several black flags with a thin blue stripe in the middle, which are often hailed as a show of support for law enforcement and criticized as a symbol of white supremacy. Pictured on the back of the vehicle is a Photoshopped image of Biden hog-tied, made to appear as if he’s in the bed of the truck.
According to its caption, the video was taken a day earlier in New York. On Thursday, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was in Massapequa, Long Island to attend the wake of an NYPD officer killed on Monday during a routine traffic stop in Queens.
A spokesperson for the latest presidential campaign of the twice-impeached former president defended the image, suggesting Democrats are to blame for not condemning political violence against Trump.
“That picture was on the back of a pickup truck that was traveling down the highway,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. “Democrats and crazed lunatics have not only called for despicable violence against President Trump and his family, they are actually weaponizing the justice system against him.”
With News Wire Services