Never Trump strategist urges Biden to 'manipulate' Trump with 'fat jokes'

A conservative strategist who actively opposes Donald Trump made the case Friday for President Joe Biden to target him with "fat jokes" — raising questions about how ugly and low the 2024 presidential campaign might become.

Stuart Stevens, a former strategist for Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and a member of the Never Trump group the Lincoln Project, delivered on CNN his pitch for body shaming the presumptive Republican nominee and former president.

"Donald Trump is a dog that chases every car, so he'll respond to this," Stevens said. "Anytime that you're distracting somebody from a positive message like that, it's a good day for your campaign."

Stuart's take was spurred by a joke Biden made at a fundraiser event Thursday night when he quipped Trump's ideas were “a little old and out of shape.”

CNN News Central anchor John Berman argued, "President Biden is making what amounts to a fat joke," contending the president was targeting Trump's fitness to mitigate the age issue.

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Stuart agreed and argued that Biden needed to make it clear to voters that he brings new ideas to the White House, noting he has one of the youngest administrations in U.S. history, and set himself apart from Trump.

"This is a good line of attack for Biden," he said.

He continued, "His ideas are stoked to actually help people in the future," said Stuart. "Trump...has absolutely no discipline and it gives you a great ability to manipulate him."

But Chris Kofinas, the Democratic strategist who served as chief of staff for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), took a stance against Stuart's gung-ho attitude toward low blows.

"Everyone loves the mud-slinging and back-and-forth, political operatives love it," Kofinas said. "Voters don't."

Kofinas' recent research shows that voters have grown tired of the "ugly back-and-forth" championed by Trump, who also used fat jokes to target former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and faced an immediate backlash for "getting in the gutter."

Those comments spurred ABC News to ask an expert what effect such fat-shaming rhetoric had both within and beyond the realm of politics.

"Overweight people have much less of a chance of getting a job, they have much less of a chance of keeping a job," David Birdsell, dean of the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College in New York, told ABC. "We impute moral failings to people who don't rein in their weight," he said. "Those prejudices are just intensified for people who seek elected office."

That may be why Kofinas urged Biden not to engage in tactics that don't address any of the important concerns voters have about his economic and immigration policies.

"It may make Democrats feel great, but it doesn't really, I think address the challenge here," Kofinas said. "Voters need to feel better about where the country is and where the country is going."

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