Since a Manhattan jury convicted presidential candidate Donald Trump of 34 felony counts, President Joe Biden and many top Democrats have been muted in their reactions. The lone statement from the president’s campaign Thursday was that “no one is above the law.” The following day, Biden spoke briefly from the White House and declared that “the American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed.” Even as a growing number of Democrats urged Biden to make Trump’s convictions central to the campaign, most of the party’s leaders have stuck to the president’s line of solemn statements about the rule of law.
The Washington Post reports that this “reflected the campaign’s plan to focus only lightly on Trump’s legal troubles in the months to come, as they quickly pivoted to the presumptive Republican nominee’s record and policy proposals.” The New Republic adds that “the Biden campaign has no plans for any paid ads on the verdict.” Semafor reports that “many Democrats close to the White House believe that voters already know who Trump is ... and that Biden would be better off focusing on issues that are affecting Americans day in and day out.”
Thursday’s guilty verdict and most Republicans' resulting fury at the rule of law affirm that 'the battle for the soul of this nation' continues.
As I read these accounts, I thought back to the motivation behind Biden’s 2020 presidential run. After the 2016 election, according to reporter Edward-Issac Dovere, the former vice president was initially uncommitted. “Then,” writes Dovere, “the Nazis marched through Charlottesville.” A few days later, Biden wrote in The Atlantic that “we are living through a battle for the soul of this nation.”
Biden would make that theme central to his 2020 campaign. Even as Covid-19’s body count rose faster here than in peer nations, he did not make Trump’s catastrophic handling of the crisis his main focus. “If you entrust me with the presidency,” he said in accepting the Democratic nomination, “I will draw on the best of us, not the worst.” He won, just as Democrats had triumphed in 2018 by making a similar case. He returned to this theme in a prime-time speech ahead of the 2022 midterms, before his party defied expectations of a Republican wave.
The events of Jan. 6 proved Biden’s diagnosis correct. The same urgency should apply this year. Thursday’s guilty verdict and most Republicans’ resulting fury at the rule of law affirm that “the battle for the soul of this nation” continues. Other democracies have prosecuted former leaders and emerged the stronger for it. Indeed, Biden’s defense of the justice system Friday — “That’s America. That’s who we are.” — echoed a speech he gave almost exactly four years ago, after Trump criticized Black Lives Matter protesters.
Yet even as this fight is renewed, some Democrats want to pull their punches. In this upside-down world, ducking becomes “rising above the fray.”
Biden himself, admittedly, must show some restraint as head of the executive branch — though the presidential debates in particular will give him ample opportunity to remind voters of Trump’s criminal record. Candidates in red or reddish states — Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, for example — may also have to tailor their words out of necessity.
But most Democrats should have no qualms about going all in on this guilty verdict (or any of the civil judgments against Trump and his businesses). “The defense, protection and preservation of American democracy will remain, as it has been, the central cause of my presidency,” Biden declared earlier this year at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Trump's attempt to escape legal accountability fits perfectly in that message.
Nor is there evidence that all of Trump’s negatives are already baked into the electorate's views.
The political case for shying away is thin at best. No matter what Biden or anyone else says, Republicans will still claim Biden orchestrated the charges. But if no one knows how Americans will react to the verdict, then there’s no reason to think persuadable voters already see the verdict as politically motivated. Trump’s rambling press conference Friday proved that his only plan is to overwhelm voters with falsehoods about how the verdict was reached. Letting his lies go unanswered only makes it more likely he will succeed. (The hope that neutral experts could effectively debunk Trump’s lies was one of the earliest casualties of his political career.)
Nor is there evidence that all of Trump’s negatives are already baked into the electorate's views. Poll after poll finds that since his last matchup with Biden, Trump has gained most with voters who follow the news the least. A survey this year of persuadable voters in Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania found that fewer than a third had heard much about nearly a dozen statements such as his promise to be a “dictator for a day” and his claim that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” Saying that voters already know Trump is just an excuse to do nothing.
Beyond the politics, though, to downplay that your opponent on Election Day will be a convicted felon betrays a lack of trust in the American people. As The Guardian’s Osita Nwanevu noted, nobody has done a better job of holding Donald Trump to account than ordinary people. He lost the popular vote twice. Twelve jurors found him liable for sexually assaulting and defaming E. Jean Carroll. Twelve more found him liable for defaming her again. And a further 12 found him guilty of 34 felony counts.
Those jurors showed more courage than every single Republican who once denounced Trump, only to lick his boots. They showed more courage than the Republican representatives and senators who refused to impeach or convict Trump out of fear for their personal safety — as if those jurors (not to mention Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan) will not have to look over their shoulders for the rest of their lives. They showed more courage than the conservative Supreme Court justices who quite literally would rather talk about anything other than Trump’s alleged crimes. The least Democrats can do is to treat those charges with the same seriousness that the jury did.
All this is not to say that Biden should not talk about issues like inflation. With months to go, Biden can do plenty to make the case that he is fighting higher prices and corporate greed, while Trump will welcome both. But if the GOP wanted this election to be about inflation — or immigration or crime — it could have nominated any of the dozens of politicians who have not been convicted of 34 felony counts. That it chose Trump — overwhelmingly — makes his criminal record not just relevant to the race but central to it.
Thursday’s verdict does not guarantee Trump’s defeat. But it does settle how the 2024 election will be remembered in history: the time a candidate convicted of 34 felony counts either won or lost. Perhaps a majority or plurality of Americans will decide they are fine with a convicted criminal in the White House. But Biden and Democratic leaders should do everything to welcome that debate, rather than hope others do the work for them. If they take the latter route, that “battle for the soul of the nation” risks becoming a rout.