The 2024 election is heating up, and the rhetoric is getting more intense. President Joe Biden, during a campaign stop in New Hampshire, made a stark call for his predecessor, Donald Trump, to be ‘politically locked up.’ This echoes the infamous ‘Lock Her Up!’ chants that reverberated throughout Trump’s 2016 campaign rallies aimed at his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Biden’s remarks came as new polls reveal a shifting electoral landscape. Trump is showing surprising strength among Latino voters and gaining ground among Black voters, creating a level of uncertainty about the election’s outcome that’s even more pronounced than usual.
In his New Hampshire speech, Biden accused Trump of wanting to eliminate his political opponents and detractors. He alleged, ‘He thinks he has a version of the Supreme Court ruling on immunity to be able to, if need be, if it was the case, to actually eliminate, physically eliminate, shoot, kill someone who is, he believes to be a threat to him.’ Biden went on to say, ‘I know this sounds bizarre. It sounds like if I said this five years ago, you’d lock me up. We got to lock him up. Politically lock him up. Lock him out. That’s what we have to do.’
This escalating rhetoric is not new to either candidate. Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, have repeatedly warned voters that Trump poses a threat to democracy. Trump supporters, in turn, have blamed similar rhetoric for the two failed assassination attempts on his life.
Biden’s comment about Trump-supporting Republicans having ‘anti-democratic attitudes’ further fuels the political fire. He stated, ‘We’re dealing with a totally different breed of cat now. That was— the civil rights era was terrible. But we got a group now that is just literally, and I’m not one that is prone to hyperbole, but we have a group running the MAGA Republicans who are have an anti-democratic attitude toward the way the Constitution functions.’
These developments have added an extra layer of complexity to the already volatile 2024 election. The coming months will likely see more fiery pronouncements from both sides, as they fight for every vote in this crucial election.