What a spectacle. As the Donald Trump defense team summed up its case in downtown Manhattan, the Biden administration sent an actor -- Robert De Niro -- outside the courthouse to play political surrogate in a street press conference. In one of De Niro’s better recent performances, the actor morphed from politicized thespian to Manhattan street crazy before our eyes. All that was missing was the sign proclaiming, "Repent – The End Is Nigh."
He even wore a mask outside – until he got around a crowd, which is when he took it off.
Clearly, there’s something going on with Bob.
But was De Niro’s rant – in which he told us that a Trump presidency will mean that elections are "all done" and that the former president will "destroy not only the city, but the country, and eventually, he could destroy the world" – really as nutty as all that? Or was there a deeper message there?
Let’s recall that this is the first overt step the Biden administration has taken in support of a conviction of Donald Trump. So Team Biden’s willingness to deploy De Niro outside the courthouse – a day before the case is likely to go to the jury – lends full credence to Donald Trump’s charge that the case is politically motivated.
Further, using a raging and aging Hollywood actor was a terrible optic for the rest of the nation. The takeaway for many will be that yet another old, white, coastal liberal is triggered by the prospect of a repeat Trump presidency. This after Trump had just visited the South Bronx.
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But embedded in this is a subtler motive. The audience for De Niro’s ravings was not America. It wasn’t even undecided voters in the swing states. It was the 12 fact-finders ensconced a few dozen yards away, inside the courthouse.
De Niro focused heavily on his status as a quintessential New Yorker. "This is my neighborhood," he proclaimed. "I grew up down here…. I love this city." But (ostensibly) unlike Trump: "I don’t want to destroy it."
Why would a swing voter in Michigan or Pennsylvania care a lick about what Donald Trump is alleged to be doing to Robert De Niro’s old neighborhood?
They don’t. But 12 jurors who we know live in Manhattan certainly might. And so De Niro’s simple message was: "Convict Trump. Save New York." De Niro was playing to New Yorkers’ well-documented tendency to see the city as the center of the earth, and everywhere else as camping out.
This is also why De Niro distastefully invoked 9/11 and equated Donald Trump with the al Qaeda terrorists who took down the World Trade Center. He knows that to many New Yorkers, 9/11 is an event that still resonates.
De Niro also checked his notes and wedged in a reference to crime, claiming that, "it’s no surprise that the murder rate and other violent crimes peaked under Trump and are falling under Biden." The actor must know that the issue of crime is much on the minds of New Yorkers these days, as they see their city descending into 1970’s-like disorder.
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Now, just for reference: New York City’s violent crime numbers decidedly did NOT "peak" under Donald Trump; in fact, at the end of Joe Biden’s first year in office (2021), New York’s citywide violent crime rate was up a full 11.3%.
Bringing that closer to home for Manhattanites, the latest NYPD violent crime numbers for their borough show us up 5.6% so far this year, and for the period roughly covering the current trial, we’re up roughly 15%.
De Niro is either disingenuous or oblivious. Does he not realize that, while these numbers are reality, the man charged with addressing those numbers, Alvin Bragg, is instead burning resources on a quixotic fever-dream case against Donald Trump?
That Team Biden would deploy De Niro at that location, at this time, speaks of a certain desperation; Biden’s numbers are tanking, and if the jury hangs or Trump is acquitted Trump’s lead will likely spike. So Biden and his proxies need this conviction in order to hang the "f" word – felon – on Trump going forward. If he’s convicted, there won’t be a reference to Donald Trump on CNN, MSNBC, or in The New York Times that won’t be preceded by the term, "convicted felon."
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But that wider focus was really not the immediate purpose of the De Niro spectacle. Because as this case concludes and its indecipherable contours become apparent, the slam-dunk conviction the Bidens were likely counting on appears in doubt (even many liberal commentators are mystified by the case’s theory).
Now, I’m aware that theoretically, the jurors are supposed to avoid all media and other commentary on the case, despite there being no actual sequestration order. Allow me to tell you that nobody – not even Judge Merchan – believes that. If he did: why would we need an ongoing Trump gag order?
No – Team Biden is banking on the message being delivered.
For the rest of the country, that received message will be simple – and it will echo the message of the E. Jean Carroll case and Letitia James’s victimless loan fraud case: Don’t come to New York. If you are not willing to toe the progressive line, don’t visit here, don’t start a business here, and for God’s sake, don’t even think of running for office here. (You might also reconsider attending college here).
Is it any wonder New York State continues to lead the nation in population loss?
But while that may be the national takeaway, the real message outside the courthouse Tuesday was directed to 12 of De Niro’s fellow Manhattanites. As the actor put it: "Donald Trump doesn’t belong in my city."
In other words: "Convict."
No matter what.
