When Donald Trump was indicted for allegedly mishandling classified materials on June 8, Joe Biden was clear to the Democratic National Committee, his inner circle, and his re-election campaign: keep your mouths shut. From afar, you can see why the president would take this position. He must tread delicately to avoid any inkling of meddling or wrongdoing since the Justice Department falls within the executive, but the horse has left the barn on that one. Biden had to have signed off on the special investigation into not just the classified materials but January 6 as well. Trump could face another indictment on that probe this summer. The optics game is also over, Joe.
Half the country sees the indictment as politically motivated, with 55 percent of independent voters agreeing with that assessment based on a Harvard Harris poll. Fifty-six percent feel this indictment is a 2024 election interference move by the Department of Justice. There is hope that Biden would revisit this decision, as they view it as prime election ammunition, especially among the campaign operative class. The script writes itself as one operative told Politico: vote for our guy because the other dude is going to jail. It’s still early in the 2024 cycle, but if it becomes clear that it will be a Trump-Biden rematch—Democrats want to hit Trump on his legal drama (via Politico):
President Joe Biden and his top aides have taken a vow of silence on the federal indictment of his predecessor, Donald Trump — and have explicitly ordered the national Democratic Party and his reelection campaign to do the same.
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Some in his inner circle hope the decision will be revisited if next year’s general election looks like it could be a rematch with Trump, even if the legal fight has not been resolved by then. As the president’s advisers chart a court for the campaign to come, they are aware that continued silence about the charges facing Trump would deprive Biden’s reelection effort of a potent political weapon.
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But Biden to this point has been explicit: The entities that the White House controls, which includes the reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee, are not to publicly discuss any of the criminal investigations into Trump. Those closest to the president are deeply wary of any perception that Biden is trying to influence the investigations.
“I have never once — not one single time — suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do, relative to bringing a charge or not bringing a charge,” Biden told reporters Thursday. “I’m honest.”
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Some people in Biden’s orbit believe that the moment calls for his imprimatur, outlining for the nation the gravity of a former president facing charges in a federal court. Others believe it would be political malpractice to not make Trump’s woes a campaign issue and privately said that they wish the president’s campaign would take on the issue directly.
They argue that the charges connected to Trump’s alleged reckless mishandling of some of the United States’ top secrets shows that he is unfit for the job. And they believe that both the ongoing January 6 and Georgia election interference probes illuminate their central campaign arguments.
“It’s a pretty easy argument to make,” said one senior Democrat not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. “Vote for our guy, because the other guy is going to jail.”
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Some aides also think that if Trump were to be charged for his actions on Jan. 6, Biden would feel comfortable enough talking about the tragedy of that day without linking it to any crimes allegedly committed by his predecessor. Other Democrats believe the current silent treatment is the right approach — and don’t want to inadvertently get in the way of a bad Trump news cycle.
First, Biden is not “honest.” He’s one of the biggest liars in government. He has the Justice Department in his pocket, so he continues to act brazenly regarding reports about his involvement in a Ukrainian bribery scheme, where he received $5 million from the co-founder of Burisma Holdings. An FBI informant’s report was released to Congress, and the briber has a ledger, phone calls, and recordings of those calls with the Bidens.
And, of course, those damning details were made public on the same day as the Trump indictment, June 8, which drowned out news of this incriminating piece of evidence. It’s the most serious since Tony Bobulinski came forward about the failed CEFC China Energy deal the Bidens tried to hash out when Joe was still vice president. These Burisma payments allegedly came in 2015-16. The FBI has run interference on numerous probes into the Bidens, specifically Hunter. You don’t think that “honest” Joe didn’t influence these investigations? Of course, he did, just like how his former boss held secret meetings in the waning weeks of his administration to craft a strategy and establish protocols to keep the Russian collusion probe alive within the Justice Department that would soon come under the control of a Republican president, Donald Trump.