Under accusation and enraged, former President Donald J. Trump — with the help of Republican allies, social media supporters and Fox News — is lashing out at his successor in hopes of undermining the charges against him.
“A corrupt sitting president!” Mr Trump erupted on Tuesday night after he was arrested and pleaded not guilty in Miami. “The Biden administration has turned us into a banana republic,” one of his longtime advisers wrote in a fundraising email. “Wanted dictator,” read a chyron on Fox News, accusing Mr. Biden of arresting his political rival.
The allegations against Mr. Biden are being brought without any evidence that they are true, and Mr. Trump’s claims of unfair prosecution came even after Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed a special counsel specifically to isolate inquiries from political considerations.
But that does not appear to be the point for Mr. Trump and his allies as they make a concerted effort to smear Mr. Biden and erode confidence in the legal system. A few hours after his appearance, Mr. Trump promised a return if he won the White House in 2024.
“I will appoint an actual special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” Trump said during remarks at his golf club in Bedminster, NJ.
On Twitter, the former president’s followers used words like “traitor,” “disgrace,” “corrupt” and “the biggest liar” to describe the current president. And while Fox News said Wednesday that the “dictator candidate” headline was “immediately removed” and addressed, the network has many supporters of Mr. Trump as loyal viewers.
The response from Mr. Biden and his advisers has been studious silence.
The president has vowed not to give any indication that he is interfering in the criminal case against Trump, and has ordered his White House aides and campaign staff members not to comment. That decision has calmed what is usually a robust rapid response team aimed at countering Republican attacks.
The president’s press aides responsible for instantly blasting pro-Biden comments to reporters have gone dark. Even Sen. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, issued a “no comment” lac on Wednesday.
Jill Biden, the first lady, broke her code of silence on Monday, telling donors at a fundraiser in New York that she was surprised Republicans weren’t upset by Mr. trump “My heart is so broken by so many of the headlines we see in the news,” she said at the event, according to The Associated Press.
The attorney general also weighed in, somewhat, on Wednesday with his first public comments since Mr. Trump was impeached. He took the opportunity to defend Jack Smith, the special counsel, as “a veteran career prosecutor.”
“He has assembled an experienced and talented group of prosecutors and agents who share his commitment to integrity and the rule of law,” Garland said.
Still, the no-comment strategy outside the White House recalls the resolute silence of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel who investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election and ties between Russian operatives and the campaign from Trump Mr. Mueller said virtually nothing for more than a year while Mr. Trump and his allies attacked his investigation and its motives.
Like the approach of Mr. Mueller, the refusal of Mr. Biden’s comment is aimed at making sure he doesn’t provide ammunition that his adversaries can try to use to undermine his credibility and integrity.
But in the end, the sustained assault on Mr. Mueller and his investigation helped Mr. Trump to create a false narrative and survive the damning revelations contained in the more than 400-page report bearing the prosecutor’s name.
On Wednesday, when a reporter pointed out that Mr. Trump had accused Mr. Biden of “arresting him, effectively directing his arrest,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said: “I will not no comment.”
Eddie Vale, a longtime Democratic strategist, said the White House’s position made sense, given the need to avoid even the hint that Mr. Biden was prying into Mr. Trump’s case. .
But he said members of outside Democratic groups would likely start defending Mr. Biden if the attacks continued.
“This is such a charged and hot topic,” said Mr. okay “There’s nothing to be gained by weight. But I think as it goes on, you’re going to have people from the outer circle weighing in.”
Trump’s strategists vow that the attacks will continue.
Chris LaCivita, a senior campaign adviser to Mr. Trump, said on Wednesday that it was fair to assign responsibility for the investigation to Mr. Biden because the special counsel was appointed by Mr. Biden’s attorney general.
“There’s a thing called the chain of command in government,” he said.
America First Legal, the pro-Trump group founded by Stephen Miller, the architect of the former president’s immigration agenda, sent out a fundraising appeal Wednesday morning, using the indictment as a rallying cry.
The issue has been echoed by the staunchest allies of Mr. Trump in Congress, who trained their anger on Mr. Biden, though they also criticized the Justice Department, the FBI, the “mainstream media” and Democrats in general.
Most of them, it seemed, were trying to goad Mr. Biden into a reaction.
“I, and all Americans who believe in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice,” tweeted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in Congress.
Mr. Biden has so far focused on governing.
Tuesday, the president he met with Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of NATO, in the Oval Office. Later, he hosted a Juneteenth concert on the South Lawn of the White House, an event where it was easy to avoid the subject of Mr. Trump.
“For me, making Juneteenth a federal holiday was not just a symbolic gesture,” Biden told the crowd in brief remarks. “It was a statement of fact that this country recognized the original sin of slavery.”
But it is likely to be more difficult to refrain from entering the Trump situation.
The president is scheduled to attend a political rally with union supporters in Philadelphia on Saturday. It’s the kind of event where you’d expect him to draw the contrast between himself and his rivals.
Mr. Biden may be able to navigate this problem in the short term; Mr. Trump has a long way to go to win the Republican nomination.
But if he becomes Mr. Biden’s opponent for the presidency again, the avoidance strategy may have to change.
As the first lady told donors at an event in California, referring to Mr. Trump at the White House: “We can’t go back to those dark days. And with your help, we won’t.”
