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“[It] It just doesn’t make sense for Biden to weigh in on impeachment, ”said a source familiar with White House thinking. “He already said he thought [there] were grounds for impeachment, but he must remain focused on helping people in this crisis.
Several other people familiar with White House thinking say Biden’s team sees no benefit to Biden weighing on impeachment, Is. His remarks surely wouldn’t shift the votes to the Republican side, they say. The slightest comment about Trump at a media briefing would erase everything they would do that day. Talking about Trump would also mean to Americans that Biden is already leaning towards politics instead of figuring out how to get gunshots in people’s arms.
“The last thing Americans want to see right now is this conversation from the podium,” Karen Finney, former Hillary Clinton campaign adviser and Democratic strategist, said of the White House on impeachment. “Part of what they’re trying to do here is say ‘this is a new day, this is a new administration.’ They will not use the White House and the tools of the Presidency to engage in politics. ”
Still, Biden’s public shrug of the impeachment trial is a notable contrast to Senate Democrats, who argue the trial is critical to holding Trump accountable for inciting the murderous Jan.6 riot on Capitol Hill. . A democratic senator told POLITICO the trial was essential to publicly disseminate “Trump’s truly heinous criminal acts and criminal intentions.”
But when Psaki was pressed on Monday on how Biden would approach the proceedings, she dodged or hijacked, saying it was an issue Congress needed to deal with. At one point, she said Biden had nothing new to say as he was no longer in the Senate, where the trial would take place from Tuesday.
“He won’t be spending a lot of time watching the proceedings – if any – during this week,” Psaki said. “He will leave the pace, process and mechanics of the impeachment process to members of Congress.”
Reporters asked Psaki how Biden could tell CBS News that Trump was too unstable to receive intelligence reports, but without considering whether he should be deprived of the ability to run again – which could potentially be the end result of a Senate conviction.
“Well, he ran against him because he felt unfit for the job and he defeated him, and that is why he is no longer President – Trump is no longer President of the United States.” , Psaki said. “So I think his views on the former president are pretty clear. But he will leave it to the Senate to follow this impeachment procedure.
Biden’s worldly determination not to be left behind by Trumpian distractions is reminiscent of the strategy they adopted during the election campaign. It was about staying true to the main message, avoiding the conversation on Twitter, and resisting calls to adopt the posture and temperament of the left.
Even during Trump’s first impeachment, Biden was among the last in a broad Democratic campaign field to call for an investigation, despite being at the heart of the matter himself. Trump was under surveillance at the time for pressuring the Ukrainian president to feel Biden’s political involvement and his son Hunter’s trade relations in that country.
Another outside adviser said Biden juggled the risks of a current president weighing on the actions of a former president and was wary of exacerbating political divisions. “Biden is still an institutionalist,” the adviser said, noting that the president was probably asking, “If I say something, is that going to make things even more horrible for the country?”
Republicans have called the latest impeachment trial a worthless political exercise, given Democrats lack the voice to condemn. They also plan to argue on Tuesday that it is unconstitutional to remove a former president.
With the outcome predetermined, Finney argued that if Biden were to hype up Trump’s impeachment, he would only risk creating unnecessary political waves with the segment of America that still supports the former president.
“It’s acknowledging that there are people who are still in different stages of mourning over Trump,” she said of Biden’s restraint on the impeachment policy. Finney said Biden had better send those voters a different message: “A lot of these people who may have voted for Trump and are in Red States, he’s also trying to save their lives.”
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