White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday said President Biden would not be weighing in on the arguments from either side in former President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, reiterating the administration’s stance that it will take a hands-off approach to the proceedings.
“Joe Biden is the president, he’s not a pundit. He’s not going to opine on the back-and-forth arguments, nor is he watching them, that are taking place in the Senate,” Psaki said during the daily White House press briefing when asked about Trump’s planned legal strategy that in part cites examples of Democrats calling for supporters to confront Trump officials.
Psaki also dodged questions about whether Biden is concerned the arguments about the constitutionality of trying a former president could set a dangerous precedent, pointing to Biden's past statement that he supported the impeachment process moving forward.
“This is obviously a big story in the country,” Psaki said. “No one is denying that here … but our focus and the president’s focus is on putting people back to work, getting the pandemic under control, and that means we're not going to weigh in on every question about the impeachment trial, and we don’t feel it’s necessary or our role to do that.”
The White House has been steadfast in its commitment to avoid chiming in on Trump’s trial. Psaki has repeatedly declined to outline the White House’s position on Trump’s guilt or the mechanics of the trial, and Biden has deferred to the Senate when asked about the proceedings.
Psaki would not explicitly say if Biden felt Trump incited violence on Jan. 6 when his supporters stormed the Capitol, but said Biden ran for president in part because of concerns about Trump's fitness.
"The president has put out multiple statements conveying that what the president did and his words and his actions and of course the events of Jan. 6 were a threat to our democracy," she said. "But he ran against him because he was concerned that President Trump was unfit for office in part because of his past history of invoking violence around the country."
In late January, Biden told CNN that he believed the Senate impeachment trial "has to happen."