Biden camp decides not to take the bait on Trump’s stormy trial

The Biden campaign has a straightforward strategy for navigating former President Donald Trump’s time in the courthouse. They’re gonna stay the hell out of the way.

President Joe Biden made a rare quip at Trump’s expense during a speech Wednesday in Pennsylvania, but aides and advisers have gone to great lengths to say virtually nothing about the trial in New York, deflecting repeated requests to weigh in on his 34 felony counts.

They didn’t even take the bait when the former president appeared to doze off on the opening day of proceedings into the legality of hush money payments he made to a porn star.

Instead, they used the moment to pivot to abortion.

“Wake Up Donald: After Stormy Abortion Ban Coverage, Trump Poll Memo Attempts to Hush Panic," read the memo Biden’s campaign sent out late in the day.

The president’s remark to the United Steelworkers Headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was relatively mild. “Under my predecessor, who’s a little busy right now, Pennsylvania lost 275,000 jobs,” Biden said during the speech.

Such restraint is owed to a variety of factors, chief among them Biden’s insistence that his campaign not interfere in the case and a belief that it would be strategically wise not to crowd the stage where their general election opponent is floundering.

"Look, Donald Trump and his team are going to have to speak to his legal issues,” the campaign’s communications director, Michael Tyler, said on a press call Monday. “No matter where Donald Trump is, whether it's in Mar-a-Lago or a courtroom or anywhere else — he will be focused on himself, his toxic agenda, his campaign of revenge and retribution. That's going to be a continuation of the contrast the American people have been able to see since this campaign began."

Most Democrats, both in New York and nationally, have been holding back from attacking Trump over the trials specifically. But while they understand why the president and his aides are hoping to stay far away from the cases, they are worried that the muted approach amounts to a real gamble with such a close race.

“I do think I would like to see them a little more in the forefront or at least addressing it,” a senior 2020 Biden campaign official said. “Given where we are, we've got to take some risks. And I do think even if it's not going to be President Biden, I think some of the surrogates should address it directly. I'll be honest, I have a feeling that the closer we get to Election Day, they will.”

That doesn’t mean the Biden team will go silent over the subsequent weeks. Monday’s attempt to tie the Trump trial to the issue of abortion is a preview of the weeks ahead, though the pivots may not all require references to Stormy Daniels. Allies of the White House want to use the spectacle of Trump in court to subtly further their case that the ex-president is chaotic and unfit for office.

Democrats have long been torn about the degree to which they should restrain themselves when tackling Trump and his legal troubles. Some in the party have argued that the issue is central to the election, and critical to win over voters who may have forgotten about the chaos of the Trump years.

“It is a sad day for the American people when they have to watch our twice-impeached, serially indicted former president begin one of many criminal trials,” said former Rep. Mondaire Jones, who is running for office again this cycle. “Frankly, it’s an embarrassment that he is the Republican nominee for president.”

But Biden himself has stayed largely mum on the twists and turns of his opponent’s trials, sensitive to the perception that he may be interfering in Department of Justice affairs. His posture has been adopted by his aides, even as some of them have described being frustrated by it.

“The president believes in the norms. The rest of us might be like, ‘Sir, it's a different time,’” said a Biden 2020 alum and White House official who was granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations. “But it only takes one utterance from Joe Biden for the weaponization of government bullshit to become more of a reality. How is Joe Biden weaponizing the government against his political ally? If I were weaponizing the government against my foe, you would hear me talk about it. And so they right now don't have it.”

Aside from the remark in Pennsylvania, Biden himself has almost never publicly discussed Trump’s trials. On Monday, he simply shook his head when asked if he was watching the case play out on the first day of jury selection.

Privately, the president has mused to confidants that he views the court proceedings as an example of the “deranged” hold that Trump has on his party. He is mystified that so many Republicans support someone who could soon face a criminal conviction, according to Biden officials familiar with internal strategy but not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Democrats, for the most part, believe the spectacle of Trump’s trial will, by itself, hurt the former president, especially with independents and suburban women. And they argue there will be more than enough coverage of the criminal cases even without them nudging.

“[The case] has a life of its own,” said veteran Democratic operative James Carville who has been publicly at odds with his party at times. “There's a constant supply of logs that are put on that fire, you don't need to add anymore.”

“Only those living under a rock have not heard about President Trump’s 91 felony charges,” said Eric Schultz, a longtime spokesperson for former President Barack Obama. “While President Biden would never do anything to jeopardize the 91 felony charges against his opponent, he has rightly talked about the acute threat Donald Trump poses to democracy.”

It’s not just national Democrats happy to watch it all play out. New York City Democrats have no plans for rallies, or political responses.

Mayor Eric Adams — whose supporters have also grumbled about political prosecution regarding an ongoing federal investigation into corruption allegations tied to his campaign — has scarcely talked about the case, except to say the NYPD is prepared from a security standpoint.

He made a brief appearance outside the courthouse Tuesday, but only to note that he actually reduced the police presence, given the relative lack of action. He didn’t tee off on Trump, just saying it’s a “fair city” that’ll give him a fair trial.

The rest of the city’s political class was even more muted. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, a progressive, self-described “activist/elected official,” said he didn’t know of any plans for a response.

“I think the trial in and of itself, the fact that he has to come and face a courtroom on this, is just huge for a person that just never has had to,” he said. But, he added, “I'm OG now. The youngsters might be doing something.”

Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report.