It has been how he operates……
Low Key…..
It could be costing his poll numbers….
But?
I doubt he changes his political style of operating…..
If this were any other extraordinary case of historic import, any other case likely to tear at the national fabric, the president of the United States might have stepped before the cameras to try to calm his fellow citizens and encourage faith in the American system of justice.
But this was no ordinary extraordinary case. And President Biden was no disinterested bystander. As America sought to absorb the first criminal conviction of one of its presidents Thursday night, the incumbent was effectively conflicted out of the matter because he is running against the newly adjudicated felon.
Mr. Biden’s absence from view in the hours after former President Donald J. Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies testified to the awkward position confronting the current occupant of the White House when it comes to holding his predecessor accountable. If Mr. Biden spoke out directly, he would doubtlessly feed into Mr. Trump’s false narrative that the prosecution was nothing more than a political hit job to take out his challenger. But some Democrats were nonetheless frustrated by the president’s public silence.
Mr. Biden’s damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t conundrum meant that his political risks essentially outweighed his presidential imperatives. While many of his predecessors have played a pastoral role at other moments when the justice system was tested during incendiary cases — think Rodney King, Michael Brown or George Floyd — Mr. Biden concluded that speaking out would make things worse, not better….
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It says something about today’s politics that running against a convicted felon is not seen as a winning strategy. Still, Mr. Biden and his team have shown more willingness to poke at Mr. Trump’s criminal troubles in recent weeks. The president has mocked his predecessor for falling asleep during the trial (“Sleepy Don”) and sent the actor Robert De Niro to hold a feisty news conference at the courthouse assailing Mr. Trump (“guilty and we all know it”)…..