Joe Biden Silent Over Donald Trump Indictment: President Joe Biden’s silence over the indictment of former President Donald Trump likely has to do with the fact commenting for him is a no-win scenario politically.
“I have no comment on that,” Biden said. “No. I’m not going to talk about the Trump indictment,” Biden said Friday. “I have no comment on Trump.”
Joe Biden will want to avoid validating Trump’s claims that a partisan “witch hunt” is out to get his predecessor.
“He doesn’t want to give Republicans anything to work with,” Todd Belt, professor and political management program director at George Washington University, told USA Today. “They are hypersensitive of anything that looks like the politicization of the judiciary.”
Larry Sabato, head of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, agrees arguing that he does not want to tip off Republicans on his 2024 re-election strategy this far ahead of the campaign.
If he comments and endorses the prosecution it would add fuel to the fire for those who say that a “two-tiered” justice system exists in America: one for Democrats and another for Republicans.
Why Joe Biden Must Be Careful
On the one hand, it could put his family’s alleged involvement in alleged pay-to-play schemes on behalf of Chinese, Ukrainian, and other foreign entities into focus.
Emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop suggest that the president may have received a 10% payout from his son’s deal with CEFC Energy. The president also participated in a meeting in May 2017 after leaving office about the sale of 5 million tons of gas on behalf of CEFC, according to an email found in the laptop.
Trump former campaign adviser Paul Manafort went to prison in 2018 due to his engaging in unregistered lobbying on behalf of Ukrainian interests under FARA.
“Unless the person indicted is a Republican, FARA has historically been a difficult law to prosecute and obtain a conviction for,” Sen Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., told The New York Post. “I have always been suspicious that the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden is another example of the unequal application of justice, with Democrats and their elite allies getting kid glove treatment.
Johnson continued: “My concern is that DOJ will indict Hunter on watered-down charges, and then enter into a plea agreement that includes sealing the records on the case. That would be a travesty, because it would deny the American people of knowing the truth and full extent of Biden family corruption.”
The former president will likely try baiting Biden over his family’s business dealings. Democratic strategists are advising Biden not to take the bait.
Joe Biden can contrast himself as a law-abiding president with Donald Trump, who was a relatively lawless president and lawless individual.
Still, he does not need to engage in overheated rhetoric at this stage,” Lis Smith, a Democratic campaign strategist, said. “There’s no need for Joe Biden to jump in front of a moving train here.”
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John Rossomando was a senior analyst for Defense Policy and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award in 2008 for his reporting.
