Joe Biden can’t even keep his mouth shut outside the Senate. What are his odds of being able to keep his mouth shut in the Senate?

Speaking with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register, Biden said that if he complied with a subpoena it would only allow Trump to shift attention away from himself and his actions.

“The reason I wouldn’t is because it’s all designed to deal with Trump doing what he’s done his whole life: trying to take the focus off him,” Biden told the newspaper. “The issue is not what I did.” The presidential hopeful said that any subpoena would be “all about a diversion.”

After blowback, he switched it to…

“In my 40 years in public life, I have always complied with a lawful order and in my eight years as [vice president], my office — unlike Donald Trump and Mike Pence — cooperated with legitimate congressional oversight requests,” Biden said on Twitter, referring to the White House’s defiance of dozens of congressional subpoenas of Trump officials.

“But I am just not going to pretend that there is any legal basis for Republican subpoenas for my testimony in the impeachment trial,” he added. “That is the point I was making yesterday and I reiterate: this impeachment is about Trump’s conduct, not mine.

The key words there are “lawful” and “legal”.

Which is to say it’s not exactly a retraction. But it’s spun that way. Biden still leaves room for defying a subpoena if he believes it’s unlawful.

The whole thing is stupid because, at this point, there aren’t even witnesses being scheduled. It’s not even going to the Senate. Why jump the gun on defying something that will likely never exist?

1. Joe Biden is Joe and has poor self-control

2. Biden is sending Pelosi a message that she can push for witnesses in a Senate trial without worrying that he’ll show up and spoil it all

This is the whole “crazy” vs “crazy like a fox” dilemma.