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You have probably heard about Donald Trump<\/strong>\u2019s record-setting run of four indictments. It has, understandably, received wall-to-wall media coverage. You may well have heard about the Trump indictments from the ex-president\u2019s fellow Republicans, loudly disputing the facts and attacking the prosecutors. Or from the Trump campaign, which is selling his mug shot on T-shirts<\/a>. But you very likely have not heard much about it from the people with the most to gain from Trump going to trial: President Joe Biden<\/strong> and the Democrats.<\/p>\n The asymmetry is striking, intentional\u2014and possibly misguided, if the Democrats think that court action and press coverage will do a sufficient job of rallying key Biden voters in 2024. Since April, when Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg<\/strong> announced that his office was bringing fraud charges against Trump, alleging that he\u2019d covered up hush money payments to Stormy Daniels,<\/strong> the former president\u2019s allies have rushed to the microphones and keyboards every time Trump racks up a new indictment. Mississippi governor Tate Reeves:<\/strong> \u201cThey have proven they will do anything to \u2018get\u2019 Donald Trump.\u201d Florida congressman Byron Donalds<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cNobody can take [the right to challenge election results] away from you, especially some rogue, knucklehead prosecutor out of the Department of Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n The most prominent Democrats, however, have been determined to stay out of the headlines on the matter. Their statements about Trump, if any, are typically written and calculated to be \u201cvery muted, restrained,\u201d one senior Democratic operative says. Biden has repeatedly refused to comment on his predecessor\u2019s indictments, even shouting<\/a> \u201cNo!\u201d to a reporter\u2019s request for comment after Trump\u2019s Florida arraignment. Jill Biden,<\/strong> perhaps, has gone the furthest, telling a group of Democratic donors that it has been \u201cshocking\u201d to see so many Republicans still supporting Trump even after the indictments, per the Associated Press<\/a>. Though those comments were apparently not meant for wide public consumption.<\/p>\n For Biden, the attempt to stay above the fray is a relatively easy choice. His brand is all about returning Washington to functioning normally, and the contrast he wants to draw is that he, unlike Trump, is a believer in the nonpartisan dispensing of justice. \u201cI think the president has been clear on the issues that underlie all of these indictments, like the issues of democracy, of the rule of law, of having an independent justice department,\u201d a Biden insider says. \u201cThe irony of people being like, Why won\u2019t the president comment on the indictments? Part of what Trump is indicted for is weaponizing the Justice Department! And people want us, in some sense, to do the same thing? Why would we do that? Our guy stands for the opposite of that.\u201d\u00a0The ongoing federal investigation of the president\u2019s son is also a disincentive: Biden commenting on the cases against Trump while Hunter Biden<\/strong> is still under scrutiny by a special counsel would give oxygen to Republican what-about-ism.<\/p>\n Beyond the White House, though, the prevailing silence is more nuanced and somewhat harder to understand. Six Senate Democrats have a solid reason: Sherrod Brown<\/strong> (Ohio), Joe Manchin<\/strong> (West Virginia), and Jon Tester<\/strong> (Montana) are running for reelection in states Trump won in 2020; Tammy Baldwin<\/strong> (Wisconsin), Bob Casey<\/strong> (Pennsylvania), and Jacky Rosen<\/strong> (Nevada) are running in states Trump barely lost. Bashing the former president could be counterproductive for them; better to focus their campaigns on local issues as they try to win over independents. But then there\u2019s Hakeem Jeffries,<\/strong> House Democrats\u2019 leader, whose job in the minority could arguably be entirely centered on attacking Trump\u2019s candidacy and legal troubles. He, too, has been careful in his comments. \u201cThe Trump indictment and the facts that will continue to emerge from the legal process speak for themselves,\u201d Jeffries told CNN in June.<\/p>\n At all levels, Democrats are following the old maxim that when an adversary is tripping over himself, you stay out of his way. For electeds not facing voters, staying quiet is seen as avoiding a Republican trap. \u201cOur thinking is that Trump is going to inject politics into this no matter what,\u201d the senior Democratic operative says. \u201cSo there\u2019s no benefit to us making this a political issue because if there\u2019s a conviction, we want people to have faith it was a fair process. We need to defend the legal process and the legal system, and not make the courts political.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s also the reasoning that we\u2019re still 15 months away from Election Day. Most voters aren\u2019t paying attention, and by next November, it\u2019s possible Trump could be both the Republican nominee and a convicted felon who is looking to be reelected in order to stave off jail\u2014an unprecedented combination that would make Biden\u2019s argument without Biden\u2019s help. \u201cYou don\u2019t really need to make this into an issue,\u201d a Biden adviser says. \u201cAmerica knows that Donald Trump means chaos, that he lives in an alternate reality, and that he\u2019s a demagogue. Sixty percent of general election voters believe he probably committed a crime. It has hurt him and it is going to continue to hurt him.\u201d Indeed, a YouGov poll showed 66% agreeing<\/a> that Trump had \u201cdefinitely or probably\u201d committed a crime\u2014and that was back when the former president had only been indicted once. Whether that translates into votes for Biden, or against Trump, is a different question. The danger of a cautious approach toward the ex-president\u2019s legal mess (particularly if Trump hasn\u2019t yet gone to trial, or if he has and has been acquitted) is that it could calcify into complacency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n