Joe Biden’s presidential campaign has been directed to not talk about Trump’s criminal cases. Apparently, Biden’s advisers believe that Trump has enough problems "without Biden appearing to meddle in his opponent’s legal troubles for political gain,” according to NBC News.
“Every day he [Trump] is in court, he’s reminding the American people that he’s dangerous, reckless and tried to overthrow an election,” a campaign source told the outlet. Instead, "Biden is finding ways to spotlight his opponent’s predicament without delving into specific cases. He is focusing instead on the underlying behavior that gave rise to some of the criminal charges Trump faces while avoiding any mention of judges, prosecutors, courtrooms or potential penalties."
It’s an interesting strategy, but it’s not working, and it’s probably too late to change that.
According to the latest survey by McLaughlin and Associates, voters are largely convinced that President Joe Biden is using the Justice Department to go after former President Donald Trump to hurt his chances of winning the upcoming election by putting him in prison, and it appears that his campaign has taken notice of voter perceptions and is adjusting their strategy because of it.
The survey found that 56% of respondents believe Biden “Joe Biden wants to stop President Trump from winning the election by putting him in jail.” There is some bipartisan agreement, as 32% of Democrats agree with this sentiment. Only 30% of all voters disagree. Fifty percent of independents agree with the sentiment. Furthermore, a majority of voters, 58%, believe Biden is actively involved in the investigations against Trump, with 40% considering his role to be significant.
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The implications of this survey are quite significant. As pollster Frank Luntz recently noted on CNN, he said the legal battles against Trump are helping him politically. Pointing to the recent efforts by New York Attorney General Letitia James to seize Trump’s assets, he said, "If they take his stuff, he's going to say that this is proof that the federal government — and the establishment and the swamp in Washington and all the politicians across the country in the attorneys general and all of this — that this is a conspiracy to deny him the presidency. He's going to go up in the polls just like he went up every single time they indicted him."
Luntz continued, "The indictment—let's not talk about whether it's justified or not—but it will prove the things that he's saying on the campaign trail, and he will go up and it may just elect him president. Do not forget that."
And Trump most certainly is bringing it up on the campaign trail and saying he’s the target of politically motivated prosecutions. At this point, whether Biden does or doesn’t bring it up on his own, Americans appear to have an opinion on it already, and that doesn’t look good for Biden. As the NBC News report noted, his campaign is already conscious of the fact that they have to handle the issue with care because of the perception he’s meddling in the case. This sensitivity may stem from their awareness that the public already believes that Biden's administration is involved.
