The week
Former Nixon Library director suggests Biden ignore Trump’s impeachment trial for America’s risk
President Biden and his aides have made it clear that they have no intention of commenting, or even paying much attention, to the second Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, which begins Tuesday. When reporters asked Biden how and if Trump should be held responsible for his role in the violent siege of the United States Capitol on January 6, he replied, “We are going to let the Senate resolve this.” Politico summed up Biden’s impeachment strategy with Trump as: “Sit down and STFU.” Biden’s allies explained to the Politico and The Washington Post that the White House sees no advantage, political or practical, in weighing on Trump’s impeachment. Biden is focused – and wants to be seen focused – on taming the COVID-19 pandemic, notably approving his $ 1.9 billion coronavirus stimulus account. Ignoring the Senate judgment also echoes how Biden’s team handled what the Politico calls “Trump distractions” in the campaign and, notes the Post, “creates a contrast to Trump, who at times seemed to weigh in on all the controversies facing the country “and watched TV frequently during work hours. Furthermore, anything Biden says is unlikely to tip the balance for condemnation, which requires 17 Senate Republicans to break with the former president. More broadly, Biden has indicated that he wants to go beyond the Trump era. Still, “it is unclear whether the White House will be, or even be, as far from this political drama, as Biden and his aides suggest,” reports the Post. “No incumbent president has ever had to face his predecessor’s impeachment process during his own presidency, let alone in the crucial early weeks that often present the best openness to make things happen.” The closest any president came to this dilemma was Gerald Ford, who replaced President Richard Nixon after he resigned instead of facing impeachment and likely removal from office, Timothy Naftali, a historian who wrote about impeachment and served as director of the President Richard Nixon Museum and Library, told the Post. “Ford needed to find a way to turn the page.” “I understand why Gerald Ford did what he did. But I think there was a cost to turning the corner as quickly as he did,” added Naftali. “And I’m concerned that, through an understandable concern about the pandemic, Joe Biden may be turning the corner very quickly.” More stories from theweek.com Trump allegedly avoided calling Biden a ‘predator’ in ads because that ‘would open his own can of worms’. Aunt Jemima renamed Pearl Milling Company.