The 2024 Republican primary race is heating up ahead of the first GOP debate in late August, as candidates jockey for attention in a crowded field dominated by embattled former President Donald Trump.
But while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other Republican rivals debate Trump's mounting legal problems, President Biden has kept a relatively low profile in the opening months of his 2024 reelection campaign, content to focus on his day job without wading into the increasingly contentious GOP primary race.
"The Biden campaign recognizes [the advantage of] letting Trump and DeSantis and the other guys duke it out" in the GOP primaries, said Rick Ridder, a Democratic strategist. Republicans are "beating up on each other in their own clubhouse."
The difference between Biden's low-key approach and the chaotic Republican primary race was stark last week.
Trump was arraigned in federal court in Washington, D.C. on charges that he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The indictment brought fresh attention to Trump's actions in the aftermath of his loss to Biden, forcing former Vice President Mike Pence and other 2024 GOP contenders to revisit an issue they'd rather put in the rearview mirror.
In contrast, Biden spent the week on vacation on the Delaware coast—just 125 miles from the White House, but a world away from the circuslike atmosphere surrounding Trump's appearance at the federal courthouse in Washington.
The president took bike rides and relaxed with family at the beach, while largely avoiding talking to reporters about Trump or other major news events.
Biden's strategy borrows from the playbook used by most past presidents running for reelection, said Michael Binder, a political science professor at the University of North Florida.
"An incumbent president is usually pretty quiet during primary time and lets the opposing party set themselves on fire," Binder said.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama took that approach in 2004 and 2012, respectively. Trump was an exception to the rule in 2020, often attacking Biden and the rest of the Democratic primary field.
Recent presidents have also waited to start campaigning in earnest until closer to their party's national conventions in the summer before the general election period. Biden has signaled he'll do the same. Without a primary challenger, he won't need to ramp up campaign activities until well into next year.
But the Biden campaign isn't standing entirely still in the meantime. Biden formally launched his reelection bid with a glitzy video in April and has maintained a steady schedule of fundraising events since then as he builds out his campaign team.
Still, Biden's reluctance to weigh in on the 2024 Republican primary race has been conspicuous given the unprecedented nature of Trump's campaign.
Trump is attempting to become just the second U.S. president to serve non-consecutive terms. He's doing so while also making history as the first current or former American president to face criminal charges.
Trump faces state charges in New York for his role in making hush-money payments to a porn star during the 2016 presidential election. He also faces federal charges in two separate cases brought by the Department of Justice.
The first centers on his handling of classified documents after leaving office. The second federal indictment focuses on Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election results in the months leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges, as well as to the charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorney.
Rival 2024 Republicans were careful to avoid a direct confrontation with Trump after his first two indictments. But the indictment for election interference handed down last week caused a shift among GOP White House hopefuls.
DeSantis, who has long shied away from criticizing Trump's handling of his 2020 defeat, made his most definitive comments yet on the issue in an NBC News interview that aired Sunday.
"Of course he lost," DeSantis said of Trump. "Joe Biden's the president."
Pence also stepped up his criticism of Trump after the former president was indicted over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. During a campaign stop in Indiana the day after Trump's latest indictment, Pence defended his role certifying the election results on Jan. 6, 2021 and criticized Trump for asking him to block the vote count.
"President Trump asked me to put him over the Constitution," Pence said, adding that "anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States."
The criticism from DeSantis and Pence underscored the delicate balancing act Republican primary candidates face as they seek to gain traction without angering the swath of Trump supporters who dominate the GOP primary base.
Biden, for his part, has made a different calculus. He has refused to opine on Trump's legal woes all year and appears determined not to change course.
After staying silent on Trump during vacation, Biden steered away from the subject upon his return Monday to the White House.
Biden hosted the 2022 Houston Astros championship team at the White House on Monday afternoon. Afterwards he departed Washington for a swing through Arizona, New Mexico and Utah to tout the administration's work on climate change and other issues, leaving the GOP primary candidates to fight among themselves.
"If your opponent is sinking themselves, do not hand them a life raft," said Binder, summing up Biden's strategy. "Just kind of wave and worry about all that next summer."
