Dodging Dem firebrands

Joe mum on rhetoric

The White House on Tuesday declined to condemn calls for violence and unrest from Democratic lawmakers, saying President Biden would not “opine” on “back-and-forth arguments.”

At a briefing as former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial was getting underway, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki was pressed on how the Biden administration felt about incendiary rhetoric from Democrats.

In their pretrial brief, attorneys for Trump pointed to comments in 2018 from Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who called for supporters at a rally to confront and harass Trump officials over their support of the child-separation border policy — claiming Trump was the victim of a double standard.

NBC News reporter Kristen Welker noted that Biden senior adviser Cedric Richmond had even defended Waters (inset), saying she had “a constitutional right to express those views.”

“So how does the White House view that as any different?”

Welker asked Psaki.

“Joe Biden is the president,” Psaki responded. “He’s not a pundit. He’s not going to opine on the back-and-forth arguments, nor is he watching them, that are taking place in the Senate.”

Psaki also refused to comment on the trial and whether it is unconstitutional, saying: “I don’t think that’s for me or us to opine on.”

On Monday, Trump’s attorneys accused House Democratic leaders of “feigning horror at the president’s choices of words” ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot without considering “some of their own members’ recent public comments.” Trump’s legal team noted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) herself said at a 2018 press conference that she didn’t understand why there weren’t “uprisings” across the US over Trump’s immigration policies. “Maybe there will be,” she said. Added Trump’s lawyers: “As political violence grew last summer, Representative Ayanna Pressley went on national TV and said that ‘there needs to be unrest in the streets.’ ”