Don't Even Engage

 Jon Chait points out how the recent revelations that Joe Biden - like many former presidents and vice-presidents - had retained classified documents is "pure manna for Trump's defenders." He notes that Trump's defense is never "the charges against me are false," so much as "everybody does it; it's not a crime."

The issue with the documents in Mar A Lago is not their existence. At the time of this story, there were a  number of articles about how every outgoing president has this issue. The National Archives discovers missing documents, asks Obama or Bush or Clinton about it, and the documents are found and returned. Classified can mean a lot of things, and there is an argument that both the classification system and the transition periods between presidencies needs some improvement. It's clearly a flawed and busted system.

However, that is not the problem with Trump. The problem there is he actively hid them from the Archives and then refused access. Biden, obviously, found the documents and then turned them over. As Chait notes, Trump's crime is not having the documents, it's hiding them.

This distinction will be mostly lost on Trumpistan, either cognitively or via confirmation bias. Subtle distinctions are not really a priority among the Rightist faction in American politics. Even if they were, everything is always a persecution of Trump and/or Republicans. A Democrat lied once, so what's the big deal about George Santos?

Biden's media team has been very impressive so far in his presidency, and it seems to still be on target. Accept the special counsel, work with them, find all the documents. Don't engage with Jim Jordan. Let Jack Smith do his work. The fact that the investigation into Biden won't lead to indictments and Trump's could will set off the howler monkeys. So be it. Ignore it. 

There's an old joke:

Wise man: Never argue with fools, for you will become foolish.
Loud man: That's ridiculous, how can you say that?!
Wise man: You're right, I withdraw my statement.

There is no winning "arguments" with Trumpistan. The arguments are not made in good faith to illuminate and establish "truth."

Don't even start.