As you have probably heard by now, Donald Trump posted a video on social media that features images of hypothetical newspaper articles. These articles celebrated 2024 and referred to “the creation of a unified Reich” under the headline “What’s next for America?”

After several hours of uproar, Trump took down the video. A spokesperson said the video was "created by a random account online and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word,” but the damage was done. The media was in a full feeding frenzy. The story remains a hot topic on cable news and social media, even though the defense rested in Trump’s election interference trial.

Regardless of how the vidoe got posted, the Biden Campaign leapt at the opportunity. On Tuesday morning, they issued a statement that called the video part of a “pattern of his praise for dictators and echoing anti-semitic tropes.”

Later in the day, the President released his own video directly addressing the controversy. The Vice President even weighed in at a previously scheduled speech.

It’s VERY clear that the Biden campaign wants this fight. After all, we have  a candidate for President suggesting that their election would lead to a “Unified Reich” when anti-Semitic sentiment is on the rise. It’s outrageous and dangerous and gives comfort to the most radical extremists. In normal times, that would be the end of the Trump campaign. However, this whole controversy feels very 2017. How many times has Trump shared a bigoted video? Democrats have been accurately pointing out Trump’s dalliances with Nazis since the “very fine people” comments after the neo-Nazi demonstration in Charlottesville. Heck, less than two years ago, Trump had dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Nick Fuentes, a neo-Nazi sympathizer. Right now, polls show voters are focused on inflation, immigration, and abortion access. Will yet another controversy about Trump palling around with Nazis really move the needle?

What’s interesting to me is how and why the Biden Campaign is waging the fight this time and what it says about their strategy.

1. Keep Trump on the Defensive and in the News

Since officially kicking off the campaign earlier this year, the Biden Campaign has aggressively pursued every Trump misstatement and misdeed. Their BidenHQ account tweets day and night to lift up everything Trump does — from falling asleep in court to suggesting he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act. ...