How Democrats Plan to Win the Spin Wars on the Trump Verdict

Veterans of the failed messaging campaigns around the Mueller report and the Comey letter are banking on Biden getting a better political result from Trump’s criminal case.

Robert De Niro
The Biden team dispatched Robert De Niro to headline a surprise press conference outside Trump’s trial. Seth Wenig/AP

As the unprecedented New York criminal case against Donald Trump sits in the hands of the jury, Democratic veterans are thinking of ways this time might be different for them — as in, an actual political winner for President Joe Biden.

The release of the Mueller report, which contained damning information on Trump, quickly became most famous for exonerating him. The October 2016 letter to Congress from then-FBI Director James Comey regarding emails found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop didn’t actually contain very damaging stuff about Hillary Clinton, but as Clinton said in a recent interview, it’s remembered as a key reason voters chose to support Trump over her.

“The lesson is not to get snowed by GOP partisans playacting as unbiased legal eagles and push back forcefully and immediately on their spin,” said a former senior Senate Democratic aide who watched as the Mueller investigation’s findings became good news for Trump under relentless messaging from his allies.