It is being reported that President Biden is giving neither time nor attention to the current impeachment trial of former President Trump. It has been reported that he is not even watching it on television.

The rationale being given for this is that President Biden is concentrating on important matters such as getting the 1.9 trillion dollar Covid-19 relief package passed by Congress.

While no one can dispute the critical importance of getting that legislation through Congress, the president’s reported disconnect from the impeachment issue is sending the wrong signal to the American people.

Covid-19 financial relief and other issues before the president are important. However, the historical second impeachment of a president of the United States for inciting an insurrection and attempted coup which resulted in death and injury to many is just as important.

The Coronavirus is surging like wildfire through the population of the United States, causing illness among millions and killing hundreds of thousands.

However, the viruses of racism and fascism have infected our body politic, wreaked havoc upon the government, caused death and destruction, divided the country, and brought about a profound political crisis.

As to which is more deserving of the president’s attention, this is not an either or situation. Both deserve his attention.

This strategy of silence on the part of the Biden administration is wrong. While the rationale may appear admirable, it is in the final analysis a self-defeating one.

It strengthens the very forces that President Biden spoke out against during his inaugural address; the forces of racism, intolerance and white supremacy.

These are the forces that Trump, the Republican senators that voted against the constitutionality of his impeachment, and Republican representatives in the House who voted, after the violent ransacking of the Capitol, against certification of the electoral college vote in an attempt to overturn Biden’s election.

By appearing aloof and unconcerned about the impeachment Biden causes many to think that this is a matter of secondary perhaps even tertiary importance. When in fact this is a matter of historical magnitude and is one of the most important political questions facing us at this time.

Silence only helps to set the stage for one of the biggest abrogations of justice in the history of this country. For the first time a sitting president incited an insurrection and attempted a coup based on the lie that his re-election was stolen from him when in fact he lost the election.

He has been impeached by the House of Representatives for this and his trial is taking place in the Senate. Unfortunately, we know what the outcome will be before the trial is concluded. He will be found “not guilty.”

Trump will receive this verdict not because he didn’t do what he is accused of and not because a majority of the Senators will fail to find him guilty.

He won’t be found guilty because not enough Republicans will vote with Democrats to make up the two-thirds super majority needed for a guilty verdict.

The overwhelming majority of Republican Senators will remain united in their determination to prevent a guilty verdict. Their motivation is not justice but political expediency. They have different reasons for doing so. Some agree with Trump. Some fear him and his followers. Some were his co-conspirators.

The silence of the president will make it easier for Trump and his confederates to accomplish this injustice. Worse yet it will make it easier for the public to accept it. After all, it must not be that important because the president isn’t saying anything about it.

President Biden must break his silence. He must influence the national dialogue on the current impeachment. He must alert the people to the great danger this poses to democracy. Failure to do so will cost his party in 2022 and the nation for years to come.

Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization For Progress