Trump posts video that shows image of Biden tied up in the back of a truck

Former President Donald Trump igniting a wave of new criticism after sharing a new post to his followers on truth social .

The video shows an image of President Joe Biden Hog tied on the back of a pickup truck and now both presidential campaigns are sounding off about the controversy .

CNN S Steve Cont Tono is joining us live with more on all of this .

So , Steve , what are the responses to this ?

Well , the Trump campaign is not backing down from this and in fact , in some ways , they're doubling down in a statement that they issued to CNN .

A spokesperson for the campaign said , quote , that picture was on the back of a pickup truck that was traveling down the highway Democrats and crazed lunatics have not only called for despicable violence against President Trump and his family .

They are actually weaponizing the justice system against him .

And just to describe what was actually in this video , this was captured on Thursday on Long Island .

It shows two trucks traveling on the road decked out in Trump flags and details .

And on the second truck , there is a picture of Joe Biden tied up hog tied as you said , and this is the kind of imagery that we have seen from Trump's supporters from time to time at his campaigns , certainly online and yes , on the back of vehicles , it is another thing entirely for the president , a former president and a someone aspiring to be president once again to amplify that kind of imagery .

And that's the response that we heard from the Biden campaign in a statement to CNN , they said , quote , this image from Donald Trump is the type of crap you post when you're calling for a quote bloodbath or when you tell the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by Trump is regularly inciting political violence and it's time people take him seriously , just ask the Capitol police officers who were attacked protecting our democracy on January 6th and Fred , I should mention that of course , these posts on social media to his true social account come just as he is also receiving flak for these attacks that he is making on the judge and the daughter of the judge who is overseeing the allegations of that he made hush money payments in New York .

Joining us right now , former Republican Congressman , Joe Walsh of Illinois and Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania .

All right , Joe , you first .

I mean , uh this is not only irresponsible , I mean , it's downright dangerous and how can the former president's camp justify that this is all right .

Hey , Fred , they , they can't and we can't let them and this is one of those things where we can't move past the headline .

Donald Trump shared an image of the president of the United States tied in the back of a pickup truck bound and gagged in the back of a pickup truck .

I mean , stop there .

Yeah , it's inexcusable .

Forget your politics .

Th this is , this is way beyond politics .

This is an incitement to violence , but Fred , none of this is surprising Donald Trump .

And this is a scary thing to say because he's the Republican party nominee .

Donald Trump wants there to be violence in this country .

He wanted it before January 6th .

He wanted what happened on January 6th to happen ?

He's doing the same damn thing now and it's right by the way for the Biden administration to aggressively go after him and Charlie , why is everybody else incensed about this and not the former president ?

Yes , he may be speaking to his base .

He can count on them , but we are talking about a general election now .

I , I mean , isn't his focus to be that he's trying to grow support ?

How does this do that ?

Well , he's really never been about expanding the base of support for his candidacy .

I mean , it's , that's , he's only doubles down on uh the mega element of his base .

I mean , he hasn't reached out to the Nikki Haley people .

He hasn't done any of that .

Uh It's clear to me he doesn't seem to care about broadening the base .

You know , that said these types of images are are disturbing for a number of reasons because he sends a signal to people across the country that it's OK that it's OK to uh pose these , these types of images about the President of the United States .

I remember as a member of Congress , I had people call my office say they were gonna do terrible things at a president .

I turn it over to the police and the secret service and these people will be visited .

Uh And it just sends a horrible signal .

This is a , this is a really crass attempt , I think at uh at political humor and negative partisanship , he's trying to converge these two things and not very successfully , but that's what he is trying to do .

And uh that's just a state of where things are .

This is this typical for Donald Trump .

As Joe said , he's all about the , this type of incendiary language that has led to violence in the past .

It's not the first time he's done it and I don't expect it to be the last .

Yeah , I mean , but you know , Joe , while the Biden campaign put out a statement saying , I mean , this is , you know , potentially inciting violence .

I mean , Trump as he has done when there have been similar , very inappropriate images or things said will try to make it seem like it's just a joke , you know , where is everybody hu everybody's humor .

And that's another way in which to try to normalize something that is just simply outrageous .

It's the sitting president of the United States and , and again , Fred , don't , don't you dare lose that tone of yours ?

I , I keep that because it is outrageous and the Biden administration needs to push back every time Trump does this .

I disagree with my friend Charlie in one respect .

I don't think this is a play to the base .

Look , if the election were held next week , it would be neck and neck , it would be damn close .

Trump may win electorally .

I think Donald Trump believes , I think his team believes that this sort of aggressive mono , mono kind of stuff .

Fight , fight , fight plays with people well beyond his base and he's gonna try to contrast it with feeble old Joe Biden .

They think that works .

That's why Joe Biden needs to be aggressive and push back hard .

Mm uh But then Charlie , I , I guess the Trump campaign is able to say and perhaps this is what they're saying , you know , we didn't do that .

This is like happening on the highway .

Somebody else did this but they are not condemning it and , and by him posting on truth social , he's using it as an instrument if you will , an extension of the very sentiment that he's trying to potentially incite or encourage .

I mean , uh you know , the , the , the former president feels like it's OK , because there's some , there is some distance between the action , what actually happened and , you know , it's his supporters who did it .

It's not him .

Well , it's completely absurd and disingenuous for the Trump campaign to say we didn't do this when they reposted it , they broadcast it uh intentionally .

Uh So I don't know how they can even , you know , say something like that with a straight face .

But I mean , it really just get to the political discourse in this country .

You know , when I was a candidate for office , you know , I , when I would attack my opponent , it was always on a matter of public record , something they said or something they did a vote , they took , it was always that way .

It just seems now anything goes , it's crazy now to be fair .

You know , Joe Biden a few years ago , made some comment too that , you know , he'd take Trump out behind the gym or something and beat the hell out of him .

I mean , OK , you know , that's probably not helpful either .

Uh And so unfortunately , this is where political discourse is .

We don't have the same level of a serious public policy conversations that can be , you know , aggressive and negative too .

But , but it , but it's about things of public record and this is just , this is just the , the latest political insanity that is uh really driven by this negative partisanship or it's not so much that we like our guy .

It's that we hate the other guy more and this is just another clear example of it here here .

Quickly , Fred .

Here's the other reason why Trump thinks this is ok .

How many , it's been almost 24 hours .

How many Republicans have spoken out against this ?

How many Republicans have called him out ?

None .

You are the only two so far .

I think it's no , they can spend all their time calling Al Trump .

They could spend all their time calling Al Trump for everything he's ever done .

It's , I mean , that's one thing that they are so frustrated with .

I think a lot of these Republican members just want him to go away .

They don't want to have to answer these questions .

We'll leave it there .

Gentlemen .

They're cowards .

They're , they're cowards and they're enabling him .

That's what they're doing .

They've made that calculation Charlie .

They wanna keep their jobs , they wanna stay in congress so they keep their mouth shut .

So sad .

All right , Joe Walsh Charlie Dent .

Uh Glad you're not keeping your mouth shut and you were with us to talk about it .

Thank you .

Running our mouths .

We like that .

Why do you mean that ?

Ok .