A remarkable split-screen moment between the two main candidates for the next presidential election happened on Tuesday. President Biden spoke out against the increase in antisemitism at the U.S. Capitol while former President Trump listened to scandalous courtroom testimony during his hush money trial.
In Washington, Biden spoke at the U.S. Capitol for a very solemn event: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Days of Remembrance Ceremony.
In New York City, Trump attended his hush money trial, where porn star Stormy Daniels was recounting the time she spanked Trump with a rolled up magazine before they allegedly had sex in 2006.
“Not much has changed since 2016,” Michael LaRosa, a former aide to first lady Jill Biden, posted on X.
Daniels testified on Tuesday in Trump’s hush money trial. She is the most high-profile witness so far in the Manhattan district attorney’s prosecution of Trump over a $130,000 payment made to her to keep quiet about allegations of an affair during the 2016 campaign.
Daniels provided a detailed account of her encounter with Trump in 2006, including the features of the hotel room where they met up, Trump's behavior, and some details of their affair.
Daniels confirmed that the sexual encounter with Trump was brief. She also said that Trump did not wear a condom, but she did not communicate about it with him.
At one point, Judge Juan Merchan told prosecutors that the level of detail “is just unnecessary,” sympathizing with the concerns expressed by Trump’s team.
As Daniels testified, Biden stood at the Capitol to denounce the problem of antisemitism and express concerns that many people were forgetting the horrors of last October’s terrorist attacks that resulted in over 1,000 Israelis dead.
“Now, here we are. Not 75 years later but just seven and a half months later and people are already forgetting, they’re already forgetting that Hamas unleashed this terror,” he said. “It was Hamas that brutalized Israels. It was Hamas that took and continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten and nor have you and we will not forget.”
CNN, MSNBC, and Fox cut away from its play-by-play coverage of the Trump trial to show Biden’s speech.
For weeks, Trump has complained that the New York City trial is keeping him off the campaign trail, and he has repeatedly claimed that the Biden White House is orchestrating the charges against him. There is no evidence the Biden White House is involved in the legal cases against Trump.
Biden and his aides have been careful not to directly comment on Trump’s trial, choosing instead to focus on the president’s daily events and his trips to battleground states. But even some Biden allies couldn’t help but notice the contrast on Tuesday.
“[T]his is an accurate description of what is happening today,” Biden campaign aide TJ Ducklo wrote on X in response to a post characterizing the dramatic difference in Biden’s and Trump’s activities for the day.
