Former President Donald Trump has now been indicted twice, but it’s President Joe Biden who is exercising his right to remain silent.
Biden and the White House have attempted to stay out of the headlines on Trump’s indictments, especially the 37 counts filed by the Justice Department at the federal level over the former president’s handling of classified documents.
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Not only is the federal indictment of a former president unprecedented, but Trump is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and, as such, is a potential Biden general election opponent.
That’s why Biden’s aversion to commenting on the situation has raised eyebrows among some Democrats. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and most other Biden appointees are prohibited from overt partisan political activity by the Hatch Act, though the president himself and Vice President Kamala Harris are not.
But Biden has reportedly gone a step beyond this in muzzling the Democratic National Committee on the subject of Trump’s criminal charges. The DNC’s mission is overt partisan political activity, and supporters fret that Biden is removing a powerful weapon — an argument for Trump’s unfitness to serve, Democrats say — from his arsenal ahead of what still might be a competitive election.
One Democratic operative who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the situation called it “risky” and “puzzling.”
Biden does have some valid reasons to be cautious, however. He wants to be seen as recognizing the Justice Department’s independence and having nothing to do with Trump facing federal charges. Trump has argued that the DOJ is engaged in election interference, trying to take out or even jail one of the president’s top opponents. Biden could lend credence to this characterization by making the legal case against Trump a part of his political messaging, inviting the Democratic equivalent to Trump’s “Lock Her Up!” chants.
Secondly, the president has his own problems. Congressional Republicans are investigating whether he has any connections with his son’s and brother’s foreign business dealings. Hunter Biden faces a DOJ investigation of his own and has long been criticized for appearing to trade on his father’s name and political influence.
There is an inquiry into Biden’s handling of classified documents as well after some were recovered from his home and an office. Trump is making the political, and perhaps legal, argument that he has been singled out for unfair treatment compared to Biden and 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
While experts argue these various cases involve differences in volume and the sensitivity of the documents as well as the level of cooperation with authorities from the targeted former official, these technical distinctions may have little purchase with voters who distrust the institutions and voices making them. There is a political case to be made that it is more helpful for Biden to be talking about something else rather than explaining whose mishandling of classified information was better or worse.
Finally, Biden may prefer Trump as a 2024 general election opponent. He has already won one election against the top-polling Republican. Biden helped Democrats minimize their midterm election losses by campaigning against Trump when his 2020 foe wasn’t even on the ballot.
Trump, who turned 77 the day after his Miami courtroom appearance to answer the federal charges, takes some of the sting out of the age issue for Biden. The next-best-polling Republican presidential candidate, Gov. Ron DeSantis, is 44, while Biden is 80.
Variations of “MAGA” — ultra MAGA, mega MAGA, and the unmodified version — are at the center of Biden’s anti-Republican communications strategy. While unmistakably intended to apply to Republican candidates beyond Trump, it is not clear if it is equally transferable to the entire 2024 GOP field.
The Democratic counterargument to Biden staying quiet on Trump’s legal situation is this: Much of the case for the current president’s reelection rests on the unique dangers of returning the former one to the White House.
If Trump faces charges related to the 2020 election in Georgia or inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, it may be difficult to avoid mentioning them. Those cases are central to Biden’s argument for why Trump is unfit for office.
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These arguments will be made anyway by Biden surrogates, Democratic elected officials, and liberal media voices. It remains to be seen how long Biden and those closest to him can stay quiet.
One such person has already broken the silence. “Like I just saw, when I was on my plane, it said 61% of Republicans are going to vote, they would vote for Trump,” first lady Jill Biden said at a fundraiser in New York. “They don’t care about the indictment. So, that’s a little shocking, I think.”
