Biden, allies likely to stay quiet on Trump’s Manhattan trial
WASHINGTON — As former president Donald Trump’s trial began on Monday in Manhattan, President Biden and his allies have not been saying much.
For Democrats, a former president facing criminal charges over covering up a sex scandal surrounding the 2016 campaign speaks for itself.
The media coverage will be constant, especially if Trump takes the stand, which he has floated as a possibility. And while Trump faces up to eight weeks in court, Biden will alternate from being on the campaign trail and employing a “Rose Garden strategy” as he governs from the White House, a contrast that the president’s aides hope voters will view favorably.
The approach could be bolstered by the fact that Trump will be appearing in a court case involving salacious details and questionable financial maneuverings while Biden is addressing a conflict in the Middle East.
Biden and his campaign have said nothing publicly about the criminal indictments against Trump, worried about improperly influencing the cases or stoking Trump’s repeated allegations — made without evidence — that Biden has engineered the charges.
Many of the deep-pocketed outside Democratic groups supporting the Biden campaign are charting a similar path. Part of their calculation, they say, is that ads promoting Biden’s record or arguing that Trump is a threat to democracy are testing better with voters than highlighting Trump’s legal troubles. Another consideration is that the Manhattan case, which is being brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, is not easily explained in a sound bite or a 30-second ad.
The other argument for the Biden campaign and affiliated groups to focus elsewhere is that there doesn’t appear to be much voter interest in the proceedings. A New York Times/Siena College poll found that just onequarter of voters said they were paying “a lot” of attention to Trump’s legal cases.
NEW YORK TIMES