• by Barbara Lippert , Columnist, May 25, 2024

On Friday, the Biden/Harris campaign released “Snapped,” a new digital slap at Trump that that bashes him directly.

It opens with the distinctive voice of actor Robert De Niro, who narrates over chaotic Trump footage from 2020, with lowlights from the pandemic  (“drinking bleach”), and holding the upside-down Bible in front of a church to clear out a Black Lives Matter protest.

Throughout, an effective use of supers blows up the most incendiary terms in all caps, in a way that underscores DeNiro’s spoken rhythms. There’s also dramatic orchestral backing.

“From midnight tweets, drinking bleach, to tear-gassing citizens and staging a photo op, we knew Trump was out of control when he was president,” De Niro says. “Then he lost the 2020 election — and snapped.”

The word “SNAPPED” snaps on screen.

De Niro continues: “Trump has snapped. He’s desperately trying to hold on to power. Now he’s running again, threatening to be a dictator.”

Trump is shown at an auto rally from last weekend in Ohio, saying “If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath.”

Trump has already slammed the ad on Truth Social, claiming the bloodbath comment was said in the context of talking about China’s auto exports and the economy.

But threatening violence if he doesn’t get elected is one of his stump staples.

“Trump wants revenge, and he'll stop at nothing to get it,”  De Niro says at the end.

By the time we hear “I’m Joe Biden and I approve this message” in the President’s upbeat voice, the change is jarring.  We’ve just been in Armageddon.

Some Dems are ecstatic that Biden is finally fighting fire with fire, attacking Trump in the same way the former real estate developer brutally attacks and belittles others.

Though I am a Biden voter who lives in a liberal bubble, I disagree with the strategy of this ad.

It may rattle the former president personally, but throwing his own inflammatory language back at Trump only helps Trump.

It bolsters his persecution complex, which forms the backbone of his MAGA followers, because they feel persecuted, too.  It’s a picnic for grievance.

A casual viewer might even mistake it for a Trump ad.  It’s filled with chaos, noise and Trump speaking to crowds, which is exactly what the Trump campaign is all about.

The ad might be catnip to Trump haters, yes, but it’s still preaching to the converted. The MAGA community would only salute it.

You can’t speak truth to glower. They are an unmovable force, so dug in with him and the lies and projection they have long accepted as truth that changing their minds would be akin to losing their religion.

To get his campaign on-track, Biden needs to talk about Biden. It’s painful that he’s the subject of so much disinformation. Half the population believes  we are in a recession, that the stock market is down, and that unemployment is at an all-time high -- and, oh yeah, that Biden failed to pass a border bill.

That was actually the work of the Republicans, who were ordered to stop the bill, on the theory that the border issue was an election winner for he who started the club of gathering in long red ties and ill-fitting blue suits.

But the steady drumbeat of Biden leaning on his record, talking about infrastructure, high employment, being one of the world’s top economies, returning women’s bodily autonomy, successfully lowering drug prices, etc. will eventually get to some of the “double haters,” voters who are up for grabs since they dislike both Trump and Biden.

Next will be the debate on June 27-- if it happens.  Trump has already said he wants to drug-test Joe, because he will be “high as a kite.”  That’s sheer projection.

Biden staff advisor Jen O’Malley Dillon has said the presidential campaign is “continuing to crystallize for voters.”

She said they’d focus on three key issues before the debate: abortion, democracy and economic fairness.

Communicating Biden’s message effectively will be tough, because people are attracted to the capacious Trump underbelly.

But winning over undecided voters  might come down to the accretion of so many Trump misdoings in real life that they can no longer be denied. His armor comes from his shamelessness.

Perhaps eventually his Bannon-supported desire to be a dictator will go so awry, so opposite to the democratic ethos that is America, that the fence sitters might finally snap.