Since a jury in Manhattan convicted presidential candidate Donald Trump of 34 crimes, President Joe Biden and many top Democrats are cautious in their responses. The only statement from the president’s campaign Thursday was that “no one is above the law.” The next day, Biden spoke briefly from the White House, declaring that “the American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed.” Even as a growing number of Democrats urged Biden to make Trump’s beliefs central to the campaign, most party leaders stuck to the president’s solemn declarations on the rule of law.
The Washington Post reports that this “reflected the campaign’s plan to focus only lightly on Trump’s legal troubles in the coming months while quickly turning to the presumptive Republican nominee’s record and policy proposals.” The New Republic adds that “the Biden campaign has no plans for paid advertisements about the verdict.” Semafor reports that “many Democrats close to the White House believe voters already know who Trump is… and that Biden would be better off focusing on issues that affect Americans day in and day out.”
As I read these accounts, I thought back to the motivation behind Biden’s 2020 presidential run. According to reporter Edward-Issac Dovere, the former vice president was initially uninvolved after the 2016 election. “Then,” Dovere writes, “the Nazis marched through Charlottesville.” A few days later, Biden wrote in The Atlantic that “we are witnessing a battle for the soul of this nation.”
Biden would make that theme central to his 2020 campaign. Even though the number of deaths from Covid-19 rose faster here than in comparable countries, he did not make Trump’s catastrophic handling of the crisis his main focus. “If you entrust me with the presidency,” he said in accepting the Democratic nomination, “I will call on the best of us, not the worst.” He won, just as Democrats had triumphed in 2018 by making a similar case. He returned to the theme in a primetime speech ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, before his party defied expectations of a Republican wave.
The events of January 6 proved Biden’s diagnosis correct. The same urgency should apply this year. Thursday’s guilty verdict and the resulting anger from most Republicans over the rule of law confirm that “the battle for the soul of this nation” continues. Other democracies have prosecuted former leaders and emerged stronger. Biden’s Defense of the Justice System Friday – “That’s America. That is who we are.” – repeated a speech he gave almost exactly four years ago, after Trump criticized Black Lives Matter protesters.
But even as this fight is renewed, some Democrats want to make their move. In this upside-down world, avoidance becomes ‘rising above the fray’.
Biden himself must show some restraint as head of the executive branch – although the presidential debates in particular will give him ample opportunity to remind voters of Trump’s criminal record. Candidates in red or reddish states — for example, Sen. Jon Tester of Montana — may also have to adjust their words out of necessity.
But most Democrats should have no qualms about going all-in on this guilty verdict (or any of the civil verdicts against Trump and his companies). “Defending, protecting and preserving American democracy will remain, as it always has been, the central cause of my presidency,” Biden declared earlier this year in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Trump’s attempt to escape legal liability fits perfectly with that message.
The political argument for avoiding this is thin at best. No matter what Biden or anyone else says, Republicans will still claim that Biden orchestrated the indictment. But if no one knows how Americans will react to the verdict, there is no reason to believe that persuadable voters will view the verdict as politically motivated yet. Trump’s elaborate press conference on Friday proved that his only plan is to overwhelm voters with untruths about how the verdict was reached. If he lets his lies go unanswered, the chances that he will succeed will only increase. (The hope that neutral experts could effectively debunk Trump’s lies was one of the first casualties of his political career.)
There is also no evidence that all of Trump’s negatives are already ingrained in the views of the electorate. Poll after poll shows that since his last meeting with Biden, Trump has made the most gains among voters who follow the news least. A survey this year of persuadable voters in Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania found that fewer than a third had heard much about nearly a dozen statements, such as his promise to be dictator “one day” and his claim that immigrants “poison the blood.” . of our country.” Saying that voters already know Trump is just an excuse for doing nothing.
But politics aside, downplaying the fact that your opponent on Election Day will be a convicted felon shows a lack of trust in the American people. As The Guardian’s Osita Nwanevu noted, no one has held Donald Trump to account better than ordinary people. He lost the popular vote twice. Twelve jurors found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll. Twelve others found him liable for defaming her again. And another twelve found him guilty of 34 crimes.
Those jurors showed more courage than any Republican who ever denounced Trump, only to lick his boots. They showed more courage than the Republican representatives and senators who refused to impeach or convict Trump out of fear for their personal safety — as if those jurors (not to mention Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan) didn’t have their situation. shoulders for the rest of their lives. They showed more courage than the conservative Supreme Court justices, who would literally rather talk about anything other than Trump’s alleged crimes. The least Democrats can do is treat these allegations with the same seriousness as the jury.
None of this is to say that Biden shouldn’t talk about issues like inflation. With months to go, Biden can do plenty to show he is fighting higher prices and corporate greed, while Trump will welcome both. But if the Republican Party wanted this election to be about inflation — or immigration or crime — it could have nominated any of the dozens of politicians who have not been convicted of 34 crimes. The fact that they voted for Trump – by an overwhelming majority – makes his criminal record not only relevant to the race, but also crucial.
Thursday’s verdict does not guarantee Trump’s defeat. But it does determine how the 2024 election will be remembered in history: the time when a candidate convicted of 34 crimes won or lost. Perhaps a majority or more of Americans will decide they are okay with a convicted criminal in the White House. But Biden and the Democratic Party leaders should do everything they can to welcome that debate, rather than hoping others will do the work for them. If they choose the latter route, this ‘battle for the soul of the nation’ threatens to become a defeat.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
