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Former President Donald Trump: The election campaign has long since begun
Photo: Mike Stewart / picture alliance / dpa / AP
Donald Trump was criticized on Saturday for a video on his online platform Truth Social in which President Joe Biden was depicted as tied up and kidnapped. Biden's campaign said the post could lead to violence. Trump's campaign rejected the criticism.
The video, released Friday afternoon, shows two pickup trucks driving on a highway carrying several Trump-supporting signs and flags. On the tailgate of a vehicle there is an image that purports to show Biden lying down with his hands tied behind his back.
Trump warned of “bloodbath”
"This picture of Donald Trump is the kind of crap you post when you're calling for a bloodbath," said a spokesman for Biden's campaign, referring to a statement Trump made in the middle of the month. The ex-president had warned of a “bloodbath” for the US auto industry if he did not win the election.
Trump regularly calls for political violence "and it's time for people to take him seriously," the Biden spokesman continued, referring to the storming of the US Capitol in Washington in January 2021 by hundreds of Trump supporters.
Trump's campaign said that Democrats and "lunatics" had not only called for despicable violence against Trump and his family. They would also use the justice system as a weapon against him.
The U.S. Secret Service, which protects current and former presidents, declined to comment on whether an investigation would be launched following the video's release.
The Republican Trump and the Democrat Biden have now secured the necessary delegate votes in their parties' primaries to be sent back into the race in the presidential election on November 5th. This will be a repeat of the 2020 duel, from which Biden emerged as the winner. It is already clear that the election campaign will be one of the toughest in US history.
muk/AFP