When they go low, let’s get lower

The gloves are coming off less than six months before Election Day.

Former President Trump has compared the Biden administration to the “Gestapo,” the Nazi secret police, while calling Biden “grossly incompetent” and “crooked as hell.”

“He’s the Manchurian candidate,” Trump said, according to audio of a lunch he recently held with top donors, which was provided to NBC News.

During the fundraiser, Trump also called Jack Smith, the special counsel, a “f—ing asshole.” 

On the Democratic side, the co-chair of Biden’s campaign Jeffrey Katzenberg also has been throwing out profanities.

“I’ve known Donald Trump for 50 years. The only thing I can say is, he was a colossal asshole then and nothing has really changed,” he told a West Hollywood crowd this week. Katzenberg also drew his own comparisons between the rises of Trump and the Nazis.

During the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last week, Biden threw his own punches and mocked Trump. “I’m a grown man running against a 6-year-old,” he said at the time.

While the president generally has avoided talking about Trump’s hush money trial, where he stands accused of paying off the porn actor Stormy Daniels over an alleged affair, he did go there during the dinner with the press.

“Donald has had a few tough days lately. You might call it stormy weather,” Biden told the crowd.

Trump-Biden 2020 was hardly a game of tiddlywinks, but the rematch looks like it might be an even tougher affair.

Republicans and Democrats are starting to cringe.

“This is so petulant,” said Shermichael Singleton, a Republican strategist who briefly worked in the Trump administration, summing up what many strategists feel as they watch the latest round. “We’re trying to elect the president of the United States, not the president of our freshman class.”

A string of polls show Biden and Trump in a dead heat as the race enters the final six months.

An ABC News/Ipsos poll released Monday showed Biden with a 1-point edge over Trump among registered voters, 46 percent to 45 percent, while a USA Today/Suffolk University poll released this weekend showed the two tied.

While many views of the candidates are already baked in with the electorate, 1 in 4 registered voters in the latter survey said they could change their minds before Election Day, while 12 percent said they haven’t decided yet. 

Political observers predict the campaign will only get uglier and more personal, especially with Democrats signaling they’re ready to abandon efforts to avoid schoolyard brawls with Trump.

“We tried to play by these 20th century rules,” said Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau, who served as a senior aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “For the longest time, in theory and in practice, most of the time, I agree with that. Voters say they don’t like negativity but then they’re drawn to negative ads. So if getting down in the mud a little is going to better demonstrate to voters what’s at stake then so be it.” 

Republican strategist Susan Del Percio, who does not support Trump, agreed, saying there has been a departure from the tone former first lady Michelle Obama tried to set for her party during her speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, when Trump battled Hillary Clinton for the presidency and ultimately ended up winning, even as Clinton was deemed the favorite in the match-up.  

“Gone are the days when Michelle Obama said when they go low, we go high. Now it’s when they go low, the question is can we go lower?” said Del Percio.

While Del Percio said Biden has simply made an effort to jab Trump and not sink to Trump’s level, she acknowledged the language is most striking during this election cycle.

“The language has gone downhill and it’s become part of vernacular,” she said. “It’s uncivilized and it brings it down to the lowest level, which is where Donald Trump likes it. 

“He doesn’t want political civility,” she added. “He wants angry and he wants ugly. That’s a symbol of strength to him.” 

Strategists predicted the tone would reach new lows — particularly with the two main narratives that follow each candidate.

Trump, who has spent his days in a New York courtroom in recent weeks, will continue to portray the trial as politically motivated. And Biden, sensitive to the criticism of his age and mental acuity, will push back at Trump and other Republicans who have tried to make that narrative stick. 

But just how low?

“It’s going to get a lot worse,” Mollineau said. “We have yet to find the line that Trump will not cross.”