President Joe Biden promised during the 2020 election to restore American norms and values.
It was a good election-year line. It’s too bad he has no intention of doing any such thing.
The president weighed in Tuesday morning on the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, coming as close to declaring the defendant guilty without actually saying the word “guilty.” As he spoke, the jury was still deliberating the case.
Chauvin, who is white, was convicted later that day in the death of George Floyd.
The former law enforcement official on May 25, 2020, knelt on top of Floyd, who is black, for roughly nine minutes. Floyd, who claimed repeatedly he could not breathe even before he was put on the ground in handcuffs, died shortly thereafter.
It was an obviously difficult and delicate case, a white former officer on trial for the death of an unarmed black man. It had a major racial component to it, as well as the potential for widespread violence in the event Chauvin received a “not guilty” verdict on some or all three of the charges brought against him.
What better time, then, hours before the jury had made its decision, for the president of the United States to burst through the wall like the Kool-Aid Man to pass judgment on the defendant?
“I’m praying the verdict is the right verdict,” Biden told reporters Tuesday as jurors deliberated the facts of the case. “Which is — I think it’s overwhelming in my view. I wouldn’t say that unless the jury was sequestered now and not hear me say that.”
Biden also said he called the Floyd family to pray with them, in case you’re wondering which way he thought the verdict should go.
“They’re a good family,” the president said, “and they’re calling for peace and tranquility, no matter what that verdict is.”
There is so much wrong with Biden’s remarks, it’s difficult to know where to start.
First, it was obviously inappropriate and extremely unhelpful for the president to render judgment while the jury was still deliberating. Let’s just get that one out of the way.
Second, Biden’s claim it was safe for him to weigh in on the matter because the jurors were sequestered is flimsy. For starters, they weren’t locked away in a sensitive compartmented information facility. They were holed up in a hotel where they could easily hear about the president’s comments. What he said quickly became national news. Also, whether the jurors heard Biden and allowed his input to influence their decision is not the point. The point is this: In a country that places a high value on due process, it is both unhelpful and harmful for an elected official, the president no less, to get ahead of an official ruling by suggesting there is a “right” and “wrong” verdict. It is doubly wrong for the president to imply a “not guilty” verdict means something went terribly wrong in the trial process. It undermines confidence in the entire system. It casts doubt on whether Chauvin and Floyd’s family were given a fair chance in court.
Third, it does not seem like a particularly good use of the president’s time to follow every detail of a weekslong criminal trial, which he would have had to do to declare Chauvin’s guilt. Biden has been watching the entire trial, right? If he hasn’t, but decided anyway Chauvin is guilty, then the president is as stupid as he is imprudent.
Anyway, if nothing else, at least Biden can go to sleep tonight knowing he hasn’t done anything so stupid and irresponsible as paying a high-profile visit to accused sexual predator Jacob Blake, who was shot and injured by a white police officer on Aug. 23, 2020. That distinction still belongs to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Our “norms” have never been in better hands. Truly.
