COMMENTARY: Biden’s warfare — legal, economic and social

In his State of the Union speech, President Joe Biden called for a wealth tax. He said billionaires must pay their fair share. He wants a 25 percent wealth tax.

As a long-serving senator from Delaware, Biden was responsible for the tax code he now says undertaxes billionaires. Biden needs more taxes to finance a growing federal bureaucracy. He needs more bureaucrats to manage costly programs to provide services for millions of immigrants.

Biden’s arguments for a wealth tax may be best illustrated in the multiple federal and state lawsuits against former President Donald Trump.

New York Attorney General Letitia James prosecuted Trump for a victimless crime, civil fraud. James, who campaigned for her office by telling voters she would “get Donald Trump,” says his wealth is a crime. She wants to seize his commercial properties. A “wealth is crime” prosecution could justifiably cause businesses and the wealthy to leave New York.

In another New York trial, Trump stands accused of a 2016 payment that may have been claimed as a business expense to stop porn actress Stormy Daniels from talking about their alleged sexual encounter. This is another unusual case where a New York court wants to remind voters that Trump may have paid Daniels “hush money” to keep quiet during the 2016 election.

Romantically conflicted Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis is prosecuting Trump for allegedly attempting to overturn his election defeat in 2020. She believes Trump’s questioning of Georgia’s 2020 election amounted to interference.

What about Hillary Clinton, perennial Georgia candidate Stacey Abrams, and many others who questioned lost elections? They have not been charged with attempting to steal democracy, perhaps because they had a First Amendment right to free speech. Trump does not?

Additionally, special counsel Jack Smith wants to try Trump for mishandling presidential records. Biden, who removed classified government documents and shared them with his ghostwriter, was cleared from prosecution because he is an elderly and forgetful man. Perhaps there is no clearer case of a two-tiered justice system.

The unprecedented legal cases against Trump could be seen as political retaliation by Democrats desperate to win the presidential election with an elderly and uninspiring white man as their presidential candidate.

The lawsuits against Trump, termed “lawfare,” might also be seen as economic warfare. Many argue that the cases are intended to seize his real estate assets and bankrupt him. It has not deterred his rigorous campaign for the White House. Polls, if accurate, show the confidant Trump ahead of the confused Biden.

If Biden hopes to imprison Trump before the election, history has a warning. In 1920, presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs was in prison for treason when he received nearly 1 million votes. The Supreme Court did not stop Debs, who had lost his citizenship, from running. Trump, if imprisoned, could invoke Debs to stay in the presidential race. Could it work? We’ll see.

Democrats are hedging their strategy. If their lawfare fails to defeat Trump, social warfare could be a winning strategy. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris mention white supremacy at every opportunity.

In 2024, Biden, like segregationists of the past, sees dividing Americans on race as a winning political strategy. He’s telling African American voters, suffering from high gasoline prices and food shortages, that they have better lives with him in the White House. Biden argues that Trump, who is reportedly considering an African American man for his vice president, would be wrong for Blacks.

Sociologists might see the national crime wave and closed retail stores in major cities as a breakdown in society caused by politicians who use white supremacy to divide people, defund law enforcement, normalize crime and prosecute victims. These same cities arrest and release violent criminals.

Biden’s lawfare and economic warfare against Trump is a model for Democrats to use against all Americans. When Trump tells supporters he is “in the way” of an uncontrolled government going after them, it is a powerful message. Democrats, in the zeal to imprison or bankrupt Trump, fail to see the harm they are doing to the nation.

The 2024 presidential campaign is not an honorable one. Whoever wins will have challenges that could take decades to correct.

James Patterson is a writer in Washington. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.