WASHINGTON, June  12, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - What's President Joe Biden got to
say about Donald Trump? The golf match playing on Air Force One television
screens the day of Trump's indictment made it clear: nothing.

With his main 2024 challenger due in court Tuesday to face unprecedented
charges for an ex-president of obstructing justice and illegally hoarding top
secret documents, Biden finds himself in a politically precarious position.

After all, it's a Justice Department headed by a man he appointed, Attorney
General Merrick Garland, that will oversee prosecution of an opponent.

Say anything -- even express interest -- in the fate of the far-right
former president, and Biden will fuel fires already blazing among Republicans
who believe Trump's conspiracy theory that he is the victim of some "deep
state" persecution.

Hence switching televisions to the Golf Channel on Air Force One during a
presidential trip to North Carolina Friday -- not the usual CNN, buzzing that
day with images, reports, commentaries and frantic chyrons about the
just-unveiled indictment.

Asked about the case by reporters traveling on the plane, Biden's answer
was an emphatic "no comment."

Asked if he'd even spoken with Garland, Biden also said no.

"And I have no comment on that."

Under longstanding custom, the Justice Department is independent from the
White House. Adding a further remove from politics, the man actually
prosecuting Trump, Jack Smith, is a special counsel operating on a kind of
legal island all of his own.

But in a United States where Republicans and Democrats have lost trust in
each other and where the Republican leader, Trump, has built his election
campaign on the lie that Biden didn't beat him in 2020, such gentleman's
agreements count for little.

Hence Biden's strategy of staying clear of the biggest political
development in the country -- and from the man he will probably have to beat to
win a second term next year.

"I think that President Biden's behavior so far has been perfectly
appropriate," Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said.

"The special counsel has not had any contact with Garland or Biden on this
case since he was appointed. Biden should continue to resist offering any
public comment on the case. As president, he should leave that task to others,
and allow the special counsel to prosecute the case."

- Loose lips? -

A problem with Biden's keep-it-quiet strategy is that Biden has a tendency
of saying things that many, not least his nervous staff, think he shouldn't.
There was that time last year when an impassioned Biden, referring to
President Vladimir Putin and his bloody invasion of neighboring Ukraine, said:

"For God's sake,  this man cannot remain in power."

The White House made clear after that it was not US policy to remove Putin.

Then there are the several occasions when Biden has gone further than
standard US public statements on the commitment to defend Taiwan from Chinese
attack -- geopolitical thunderclaps routinely followed up by the White House
with assurances that nothing has changed.

Maintaining radio silence on the Trump scandal may get exponentially more
difficult as the campaign develops.

It's possible that the Republican may be on trial at the height of election
season next year, making the subject near impossible to avoid -- especially
when Trump turns his trial into a vehicle for damaging conspiracy theories
about supposed White House abuse of power.

Political scientist and author of a book on the presidency Lara Brown said
Biden is doing the right thing -- and that trying to address the issue would in
any case be futile.

"Nothing good can come from him speaking publicly about the matter. The
legal process will play out over the next many months and whatever results come
about will be statement enough," she said.

"Trump's supporters dislike and distrust Biden. Heck, many even fail to
believe that he is the legitimate president.

"And there is nothing that can be said by any Democrat, let alone President
Biden to convince them that the Justice Department is acting in the interests
of the rule of law and the American people."