“[It] it just doesn’t make sense for Biden to opine on impeachment, ”said a source familiar with the White House’s thinking. “He already said that he thought [there] were reasons for impeachment, but he has to stay focused on helping people in this crisis. ”
Several other people familiar with the White House’s thinking say that Biden’s team sees no advantage in Biden weighing on the impeachment, or. His comments would certainly not move the votes on the Republican side, they say. Even the smallest comment about Trump at a news conference would erase anything else they did that day. Talking about Trump would also signal to Americans that Biden is already biased towards politics instead of figuring out how to get shot in people’s arms.
“The last thing Americans want to see right now is that talk on the podium,” said Karen Finney, former Hillary Clinton campaign advisor and Democratic strategist, about the White House talking about impeachment. “Part of what they’re trying to do here is say ‘it’s a new day, it’s a new administration’. They will not use the White House and the tools of the presidency to get involved in politics. ”
Still, Biden’s public attitude to the impeachment trial is a striking contrast to Senate Democrats, who say the trial is essential to hold Trump accountable for inciting the January 6 deadly riot on Capitol Hill. A Democratic Senator said POLITICO the trial was essential to publicly publicize Trump’s “truly heinous criminal actions and criminal intentions”
But when Psaki was pressed on Monday about how Biden would approach the process, she avoided or sidestepped, saying it was a matter for Congress to deal with. At one point, she said Biden had nothing new to say because he was no longer in the Senate, where the trial will be held from Tuesday.
“He won’t be spending a lot of time following the procedures – if he will – over the course of this week,” said Psaki. “He will leave the pace, process and mechanics of the impeachment process to members of Congress.”
Reporters pressured Psaki about how Biden could tell CBS News that Trump was too unstable to receive intelligence instructions, but did not consider whether he should be stripped of his ability to run for office again – which could be the end result of a condemnation in the Senate.
“Well, he ran against him because he felt inadequate for the job and defeated him, which is why he is no longer president – Trump is no longer president of the United States,” said Psaki. “So I think your views on the ex-president are quite clear. But he will leave it to the Senate to see this impeachment process move forward. “
Biden’s world determination not to be sidetracked by Trumpian distractions is reminiscent of the strategy they adopted in the campaign. It was a focus centered on following the central message, avoiding the conversation on Twitter and resisting calls to adopt the left’s attitude and temperament.
Even during Trump’s first impeachment, Biden was among the last in a vast Democratic campaign field to call for an investigation, despite the fact that he himself was at the center of the subject. Trump was then under scrutiny for applying pressure to the President of Ukraine to probe Biden’s political involvement and his son Hunter’s business in that country.
Another external adviser said that Biden competes with the risks of a current president weighing in on the actions of a former president and is afraid to exacerbate political divisions. “Biden is still an institutionalist,” said the adviser, noting that the president is probably asking, “‘If I say anything, will that make things even more horrible for the country?'”
Republicans regard the latest impeachment trial as a useless political exercise, as Democrats have no votes to condemn. They also plan to argue on Tuesday that a former president’s impeachment is unconstitutional.
With the predetermined outcome, Finney argued that if Biden exaggerated Trump’s impeachment, he would only risk creating unnecessary political waves with the segment of America that still supports the former president.
“It is recognizing that there are people who are still in various stages of mourning over Trump,” she said of Biden’s restriction on talking about impeachment policy. Finney said that Biden is better off sending these voters a different message: “Many of those people who may have voted for Trump and are in red states, he is trying to save their lives as well.”