Joe Biden is salivating at the prospect of his political archrival being convicted in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial in Manhattan, with jury deliberations set to begin this week.
If Donald Trump is found guilty in the first criminal prosecution of a former president, it will be a travesty of justice and a clear attempt to rig the 2024 presidential election.
But the ploy risks backfiring on Biden in the same way that Republican attacks on Bill Clinton over his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky did. Voters look dimly on the abuse of legal power to police private morals and, even though Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has tried to dress up his prosecution of Trump as a campaign-finance violation, it’s obvious to everyone that the whole point was the prurient retelling of his alleged night of passion with a porn star that so titillated the new prudes of MSNBC.
According to Politico, as soon as the jury comes back, Biden will deliver a statement addressing the verdict in a “White House setting — not a campaign one — to show his statement isn’t political.”
Hah! As if.
Biden gives game away
Nothing Biden can say will be cleansed of the taint of political dirty tricks, no matter how hard his media handmaidens try to characterize his attitude as taking “a vow of silence” and classily rising above the sordid legal woes of his opponent.