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Biden White House asks 'Trump who?' ahead of speech to conservatives

Published 02/27/2021, 07:05 AM
Updated 02/27/2021, 07:10 AM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump departs on travel to West Point, New York from the South Lawn at the White House in Washington

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump departs on travel to West Point, New York from the South Lawn at the White House in Washington

By Alexandra Alper and Jarrett Renshaw

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's White House has made it clear it plans to ignore Donald Trump's speech on Sunday to a conservative conference in Florida, where the former president is expected to go on the attack against his successor.

"Our focus is certainly not on what President Trump is saying" at the Conservative Political Action Conference, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.

It's a strategy that has worked before, political veterans and historians say.

"Biden is obeying an old political rule, which is 'Never get in the way of a train wreck'," said Bob Shrum, former Democratic strategist and director of the Center for Political Future at University of Southern California.

Biden's approval ratings in Gallup polls have remained above 55% since he took office on Jan. 20, and support for the White House's $1.9 trillion COVID-relief package is higher.

"Why should somebody with a 60 percent approval rating be fighting with someone with a 33 percent approval rating?," Shrum said. "It just doesn’t make any sense."

Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf agreed.

"One of Biden’s great strengths in the campaign was he focused on the future ... he is doing exactly what he needs to do which is talk about COVID and the economy," Elmendorf said.

Meanwhile, Republicans are at loggerheads over how to deal with Trump's legacy.

Several of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump on an impeachment charge over the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol have faced censure votes at home.

Others, like House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, have taken great pains to walk back initial criticism of Trump's role on Jan. 6, when he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol.

"The Republicans are having a fight with themselves about Donald Trump," Elmendorf said. "We should let them have it and stay out of it."

On Sunday, Trump is expected to signal a run in 2024 and put Republicans who supported his impeachment on notice, while accusing Biden of opening the doors to immigrants.

The White House plans to shrug.

"Well, we’re not looking to former President Trump or any of his advisers as a model for how we're approaching immigration," Psaki said.

Some say any truly incendiary remarks on Sunday or afterwards deserve a federal government response, however.

"Anything that [Trump] says that threatens the constitutional order is going to be beyond the pale and there are going to be, in effect, certain red lines that if Trump goes over them, that Biden will feel compelled to say something," said David Gergen, a former adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

"The more Biden is able to hold back, the more important it will be when he unloads on Trump if he decides to do that," Gergen said.

But there's little reason to comment on Trump otherwise, Princeton political history professor Julian Zelizer said.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump departs on travel to West Point, New York from the South Lawn at the White House in Washington

Biden "is on the cusp of a major stimulus relief package that is enormously popular so why allow the former president to take the people’s eyes off of that? I just don’t think there is any incentive for him to do it," Zelizer said.

Latest comments

Trump who? means memory loss. You voted for him! 😭
by "You", I assume you meant all 81m american voters?
what time start to speak
Ter rrist trump. Had his plan succeeded his republicans were out to ki ll our represenatives. It would have been the end of america. It did enough damage already
Sad, over the hill loser trump. Nobody cares
You care. Pelosi loves trump, the democrats love trump, they cant leave him alone
The only reason we're still talking about Trump is because he's such a cartoon character that his actions are both amusing and concerning. He still gets coverage for the same reason that the Kardashians do. Not because he's important but because he always creates a scene.
"Why should somebody with a 60 percent approval rating be fighting with someone with a 33 percent approval rating?" Because your polls are manipulated. And you have a colossal disaproval ration on every WH tube video you upload. Colossal.
 slow day at the russian bot farm I see
Bias at the top level.Biden wanted to take trump behind the wall and beat him.Harris mentioned “does someone have to comenout alive”. and that is fine for the media, but trump is not allowed to say anything.
trump lost the election because he couldn't stop talking.
"trump is not allowed to say anything"  -- this gave me a good laugh
Trump's the guy whose great economy you are putting into the toilet.
I think that you have never compared the average real GDP growth rate on the tenure of Trump with por example Obama or even Bush...or you would never say that!
"....whose great economy"  -- really?  you call 2020 US economy great?  I am pretty sure the 20m people out of work just may disagree with you
If I had dementia, I'd be saying "Trump who" too.
LOL......
🎯
90% of the commenters here cannot accept that Biden has a higher approval rate than Trump.
Its Simple, 90% of the commenters don't trust the MSM... Trump withdrawing troops and trying to bring peace is in Mideast was a sin to the establishment media. But Biden bombing in his 2nd month and increasing troops in mid-east is a good thing? and that has higher approval? at some point, you must truly think something is out of wack here
WH tube channel has a 90% disapproval ratio on every vid. Try again.
It's Kamala's White House, Biden is just a puppet.
Biden is out of control, Obama at the wheel destined to crash hard.
Biden is not the president. Fraud can not decide the presidency.
True, bud sadly, an epic proportion of world governments are also not there because WeThePeople elected them. That is the sad reality.
I remembered Trump also said there were major election frauds in 2016 election and that was the only reason HIllary got more votes than he did.  I wonder if the president in charge in the last 4 years had done something to investigate and prosecute those election frauds????
They cheated, and everyone knows it. It defies any common sense that Biden hit thr most votes in history, 7 million mlre then Barack Obama, but won with HALF the counties. Not believable. The Dominion machines had algorthms built into them. We had witnesses in Itaky testify, under oath, that voyes were routed through satellites owned by a company called Leonardo. And they backed all that up with twns of thousands of fake ballots, delivered through the back doors at ballot counting centers, all revealed from sworn affadvits made by hundreds of witnesses, under penalty of perjury. Thata why theu could care less how lwft they go. They dont care. They cheated ans got away with ******* And now rhat they are on control, itll be even easier next time.
believe it
It's very easy to understand. Normally, voter turn-out is pretty anemic since there is usually a fair amount of apathy. However, 2020 was the most polarized election in a long time, so it made more people than ever determined to vote (on both sides), and the majority of them voted to end Trump's presidency. You might not like it but that's the truth. Regarding "boxes of ballots delivered through back doors", those states' own legislation dictated that mailed-in ballots could not be counted until after all the in-person ballots, so of course they were brought in for counting toward the end of the night. Nothing surprising or strange about that. And as for "votes being routed through satellites" what are you talking about? If you really believe that voting machines were somehow programmed to change votes, why would they need to route votes through some satellite just to do that? You've been reading too many conspiracy theories. It's time to think calmly and use some common sense.
"It defies any common sense that Biden hit thr most votes in history, 7 million mlre then Barack Obama, but won with HALF the counties."  -- well, I am guessing math isn't one of your strong subjects
Biden should watch, maybe he would learn something. Doubt it.
I want to hear what he has to say even if he doesn't share my opinions or beliefs.
That means Joe that you are choosing to ignore over 70 million people who voted for Trump.  As a "president for all", not so sure you should be saying that
 he was uncontested...
no he wasnt lmao... the gop said they werent going to support anyone else. Massive difference.
Sol, Weinberg, Trump was NEVER a "president for all". How many times did he talk about "red states" and "blue states" and try his best to make sure Democrat-controlled states and cities were financially punished by his policies? Over and over again he railed against perceived domestic political enemies (anybody who dared to disagree with him), even within his own political party. And the majority of his policies favored the rich, not the middle-class or working-class people who his rallies were aimed at. Trump was a president for the rich, the Xenophobes, and the gullible.
Media trying as much as possible to milk the former president....  Various MSM outlets like Bell Media, Vice, CNN all these outrage invoking journalists are on the cusp of losing/lost their jobs. This is nothing to be happy about, but its what you get when you have chased sensationalism rather than actual/honest news. Trump never started a new war, and Biden has resumed bombing in Syria and sending threats to Russia in the 2nd month of his presidency. Russia is in no way a bigger threat than China is.
Its amazing that kids areSuddenly no longer in cages, but are now in “holding facilities”. Its so funny watching the lefty bias in the media at work. Also, only Trump supporters rioted in 2020 apparently, for one day, compared to 9 months of anti trump riots lol..Bunch of shameless wonders
Antifa members were arrested at the capitol the day trump supporters stormed it. Pay attention to the facts. Also, yes there is a debate, but most people who are full of it dont want to debate. So i understand your position lol
the number of Antifa members arrested pales in comparison to the number of "Q" and other right-wing conspiracy theorists, and brainwashed Trump supporters who were arrested.
Matt Goodwin, for somebody telling others "pay attention to facts" you seem to be rather confused. "9 months of anti-Trump riots"? What are you talking about? There were months of riots protesting police brutality and racial injustice, but those had nothing to do with being anti-Trump. Trump, seeing that his failure in handling the pandemic and economy, desperately tried a new tactic of trying to paint himself as the "president of law and order" by trying to make the BLM protests seem like a "Democrat thing", or an "anit-Trump thing" but that was just another one of his many desperate lies. They had nothing to do with him.
I see alot of T.D.S investors out today...
Shrums my man 💪
the betraytor will be arrested in summer. Then it will be known who he is.
no, Trump.
Trump was the worst and most embarassing president of all time
If i wanted to read tabloids i wouldnt be on investing.com time to make a real investment site
All you have to do is click on the "Stock Market" or "Economy" filter on the news stories here, rather than lazily only reading "Latest". It's not rocket science.
Two questions: Why run this story unless you don't believe what WH said? Why WH even commented if they believe Trump is irrelevant? The answer to both is Rooters and WH are concerned and not as as secure as they try to portray. Otherwise, there is no story. Reuters/Pravda would find another political party story to run.
"Biden is obeying an old political rule, which is 'Never get in the way of a train wreck',"  Hard to get in the way when you are the train wreck.
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