“A weak and exhausted Donald Trump once again falls asleep in court,” his campaign announced. Said this on Friday’s Xreacting to a New York Times live blog entry that said President Trump “appears to have fallen asleep in court again.”
Late Friday, the Biden campaign in a news release labeled President Trump a “sleepy don” and said he had a “nightmare week” that included “taking some time off.”
The dig is notable because the Biden campaign and White House have avoided commenting on the trial itself. President Trump has claimed the incident was an attempt to interfere with the 2024 election and claimed without evidence that Biden orchestrated the incident in preparation for a rematch in November.
The Trump campaign fired back at the Biden campaign on Friday, calling the Times report “fake news from a reporter who hasn’t even been to court.”
“Mr. Biden consistently falls asleep during meetings, in contrast to the number of times he falls, trips, and bumps his butt,” Trump’s press secretary Stephen Chan said in a statement.
Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who wrote the blog post, said in an email that she was watching from an overflow room outside the courtroom.
“Unlike Trump’s aides, who sit in the rows behind Trump in court, I’m in an overflow room, along with other reporters, viewing Trump’s entire face on a very large monitor through a closed-circuit camera. “We were able to do that,” Haberman said.
The trial is the first of four that President Trump faces as the 2024 election approaches. In New York, he faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush-money payment aimed at keeping an adult film actress quiet about an alleged sexual encounter.
Trump will be required to attend every day of the trial, which began with jury selection on Monday.
It’s not entirely clear whether Trump fell asleep in court. Washington Post reporters watched the trial from inside the courtroom (albeit seated behind Trump) and from an overflow room with a video feed. They’ve seen him close his eyes multiple times this week.
During jury questioning Tuesday, Trump closed his eyes and occasionally bowed his head. At another moment, Trump appeared to be hunched over and his eyes closed, occasionally tilting his head.
On Thursday, President Trump appeared to be resting his eyes as Judge Juan Machan read detailed jury instructions.
When initial reports surfaced that President Trump apparently fell asleep in court on the opening day of the trial, the Biden campaign responded playfully to highlight the biggest issue for Democrats this election cycle. took advantage of it.
The subject line of the Biden campaign’s news release read: “Wake up, Donald: After a storm of anti-abortion reporting, President Trump’s poll memo seeks to quell panic.”
The news release cited a Trump campaign memo downplaying the political potential of the abortion issue in Arizona, after the state Supreme Court last week upheld a near-total abortion ban.
The Biden campaign told The Washington Post that it remains focused on issues other than Trump’s trial.
“Our campaign and president are focused on the American people, not the trials and tribulations of Donald Trump,” Biden campaign press secretary Ammar Moosa said in a statement. “We are also not sleeping on the fact that candidates who remain focused on fighting for the American people, undistracted by their own grievances and pursuits of revenge and retribution, will win elections. .”
Still, criticism of Trump comes as Biden officials push back against concerns about Biden’s own mental health, saying the former president has confused people, gotten facts wrong or made gaffes. The move comes as part of the Biden campaign’s continued effort to expand the number of examples. Biden, 81, is just a few years older than Trump, 77, but polls show voters are more concerned about Biden’s age.
White House officials have repeatedly declined to comment on the matter, suggesting Mr. Biden is not paying close attention.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday, the first day of the trial, that she expected Biden to “get an update at some point today,” but that the day was focused on meeting with foreign leaders. He said there was. Asked about the trial the next day, she said Biden was focused on a three-day tour of Pennsylvania that began that day.
Jury selection for Trump’s trial ended Friday afternoon, with opening statements scheduled for Monday.
President Trump said on social media Friday afternoon that the trial is “a long, fixed, endurance contest.”
Isaac Arnsdorf and Tyler Pager contributed to this report.
