Political strategist reality-checks Biden campaign for stunt outside Trump's trial: 'Stupid mistake'

Karl Rove, a career political strategist, is calling out the Biden campaign for a "stupid mistake."

On Tuesday, the Biden campaign held a surprise press conference outside the Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump's hush money trial is taking place. The campaign used actor Robert De Niro and two former Capitol Police officers — Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone, who both worked on Jan. 6 — to do the campaign's anti-Trump messaging.

'Under Sheppard v. Maxwell ... the Supreme Court has long held that a defendant’s right to an impartial jury can be violated by extensive publicity about the case that creates a circus atmosphere.'

The mistake, according to Rove, is the Biden campaign aided the perception that Trump's trial is political.

"Stupid mistake by the Biden campaign," Rove said on Fox News.

"While all the cameras were there, they wanted to get their moment in the sun — and it was a big mistake. It politicizes the trial," he explained.

At the press conference, De Niro claimed that Trump will "destroy America" and "destroy the world" if he wins the election. According to Rove, that type of rhetoric won't win the support of undecided voters — and it could push them away.

"This was so over-the-top as to simply be useless, and what a stupid mistake on the part of the Biden campaign," Rove exclaimed.

Not only was the stunt a potential political mistake, but attorney Dan McLaughlin thinks it may have been a legal one, too.

In his view, McLaughlin said that prosecutors may have violated Trump's Sixth Amendment rights.

"Under Sheppard v. Maxwell ... the Supreme Court has long held that a defendant’s right to an impartial jury can be violated by extensive publicity about the case that creates a circus atmosphere," McLaughlin wrote at National Review.

"This is a nationally known celebrity acting as a representative of the president of the United States, at the very site of the trial, on the day before the jury will begin to deliberate, declaring that 'everybody in the world' knows that the defendant is guilty and that he has previously gotten out of too many thing," he added, referring to De Niro.

"Sure, Trump has had his surrogates out there (including the speaker of the House), but the prosecution doesn’t have a constitutional right to an impartial jury; the defendant does," he explained. "If this isn’t over the line, what is?"

Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was recently accused of saying "the quiet part out loud" when she refused to answer a question about Speaker Mike Johnson (R) speaking outside Trump's trial by citing the upcoming election.

"I don't want to comment, obviously, as this is related to 2024 elections," she said.

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