Joe Biden plans to break his vow of silence and publicly address the criminal trials facing Donald Trump when a verdict is handed down, four people familiar with internal deliberations told POLITICO.
Biden plans to initially explain the verdict in a White House setting — and not a campaign setting — to show that his statement is not political, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
If the jury convicts Trump, Biden’s team will argue that the outcome shows Trump is unfit for office and shows the extremes the former president would go to to win again. The campaign’s social media team is considering further leveraging the line of attack amid ongoing discussions about referring to the ex-president online as “Convicted Felon Donald Trump.”
His team is also preparing for a barrage of Republican and Trump attacks if the former president is acquitted or if a jury is hung.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday and the jury could reach a decision as early as next week. And Biden will speak at some point afterward — no final decision has been made yet on timing and setting — regardless of the outcome, whether it’s a conviction, acquittal or hung jury. The message will be different for specific rulings, but the fundamental point will remain the same: that the American justice system worked and that the process should be respected.
“This is an important moment and the president must first and foremost emphasize that the American system works, even and especially in an election year,” said one of four people granted anonymity to discuss those deliberations. “And in a measured way it also becomes part of his argument against Trump: do Americans really want this?”
The Biden team’s plans are still being discussed and could change, people familiar said. The White House and Biden campaign declined comment.
The first criminal prosecution of a former president has left the president in delicate politics, especially as his son Hunter faces separate trials this summer on gun and tax charges. Biden has stayed away from Trump’s trial to avoid the perception of interference, even as some fellow Democrats have encouraged him to more aggressively press the charges against Trump: that he made a hush-money payment to pursue an affair with a porn star, which is against the campaign. financial laws.
And while the president will likely discuss the occasional guilty verdict on the campaign trail, his team doesn’t think even a conviction will meaningfully change the trajectory of the campaign. Aides don’t believe the process has resonated much with voters outside the Acela corridor.
But it could make a difference on the margins, and that could matter in a race that is expected to be extremely close.
‘I do not think so [Biden] We need to run to the briefing room and talk about this,” said Jennifer Palmieri, President Barack Obama’s former communications director. “But at some point he should address the conviction by saying that a jury of Donald Trump’s colleagues has convicted him of a crime and that this would do extraordinary damage to the standing of the United States and to the credibility of our democratic system for someone who is American. found guilty of a crime and subsequently elected president.
The Biden team has long believed that too many Democratic voters have placed their faith in a belief that cripples Trump’s changes, noting that a guilty verdict does not inherently prevent the Republican from being elected. The campaign believes that the first presidential debate next month is a much more important moment to sway the race, and that issues like abortion, inflation and a few foreign wars resonate much more with voters.
Of the more than 100 fundraising emails sent by Biden’s campaign since the New York proceedings began in mid-April, only two messages mentioned the word “process” — both messages noting how well the process had been for Trump’s fundraising campaign asking Democratic donors for money to help Biden keep up.
Should Trump avoid a conviction, the president’s aides are bracing for the former president to release a barrage of claims about how he fought an investigation he claims was orchestrated against him by Biden . That outcome could further galvanize Trump’s existing supporters.
But just as Biden is about to break his near silence on the Trump trial, many in Democratic politics are urging caution.
“I don’t think it’s important to rub it in,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.). “I don’t think anyone on our side should react cheerfully. It should simply be a tragedy that an American president has been convicted of real crimes.”
Interviews with a dozen Biden allies on the Hill and prominent Democratic strategists unaffiliated with but supporting his campaign say the president and other Democrats should keep their mouths shut if Trump is found guilty — largely because they believe a such a verdict will do the job for him.
Trump’s numerous crimes and ongoing legal troubles are well known to voters, they argue — and Biden and his surrogates don’t need to remind them. The criminal conviction of a former president seeking to return to power is a somber moment that should not simply be used for political gain. Does Biden really want to talk about a porn star or feed into Republican claims that he is arming the government against a political opponent? And some strategists say declaring Trump’s trial also risks drawing attention to the legal quagmire surrounding Hunter Biden.
“If convicted, he will be called ‘convicted felon Donald Trump’ by everyone in Democratic politics,” said Matt Bennett, executive vice president for public affairs at the center-left think tank Third Way.
Biden “doesn’t have to deal with it because everyone else will,” Bennett said. “He’s the only person who could somehow reduce the political impact of this by getting involved, because then Trump could argue that the judgment is political.”
Not all Democrats agree with a hands-off strategy. After four years without Trump out of the White House, some Biden supporters worry that swing voters will have to be reacquainted with the drama engulfing the country if Trump is in power.
“At some point people have to get realistic and say, ‘Do you really want this guy in the Oval Office? Do you really want him to represent the people of this country? ” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.).
Biden himself issued a directive a year ago that the entities the White House controls, including the re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee, should not publicly discuss any criminal investigation into Trump, maintaining a clear line between the West Wing and the Department of Justice Justice.
And aside from a few jokes, the Biden team has largely adhered to that edict. Aides said Biden would remain silent on the three ongoing investigations into Trump — over his handling of classified documents, as well as cases of election interference at the federal level and one in Georgia — and that those trials are unlikely to begin until voters cast their ballots. ballots.
Additional reporting contributed by Ally Mutnick, Lisa Kashinsky, Brakkton Booker and Jessica Piper.
