President Joe Biden’s decision to call his predecessor Donald Trump a “convicted felon” for the first time represents a significant hardening of his rhetoric against his Republican opponent in the general election.
Biden’s escalation at an off-camera fundraiser in Connecticut on Monday night came as some Democrats pushed for a more robust political attack on the presumptive Republican nominee after Trump was convicted of bribery in his trial. in New York last week.
“For the first time in American history, a former president who is a convicted felon is now seeking the office of president,” Biden said. “But just as disturbing, and more damaging, is the all-out assault that Donald Trump is making on the American justice system.”
Other Democratic officials have used such rhetoric. But the phrase gained greater strength when it came from the president himself.
While Republicans have rallied behind Trump since his conviction, it remains uncertain how the verdict will be received in battleground states where a change of a few thousand votes could decide the election in November.
Biden’s remark was yet another surprising twist in an election intertwined with multiple legal threats against Trump. It comes on a day when his family was embroiled in its own extraordinary courtroom drama, as Biden’s son Hunter became the first child of a sitting president to stand trial.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to charges of illegally purchasing and possessing a gun while addicted to or abusing drugs. He will also face a tax trial in September.
Last week, Biden noted that Trump had been convicted of 34 criminal charges and said it was “reckless… dangerous… and irresponsible” for his opponent to say the verdict was rigged.
Presidential statements at off-camera fundraising events can often serve as a testing ground for rhetoric that later emerges at public events.
But Biden’s sharper tone will certainly lead to accusations from the Trump campaign that the former president’s conviction came after a process of politicization of the justice system.
In another significant legal development on Monday, Trump received good news from Georgia, where he is one of several defendants in a racketeering case over his attempt to overturn the state’s election result, which was decisive in Georgia’s victory. Biden in the 2020 election.
The Georgia Court of Appeals has scheduled oral hearings for Oct. 4 on an attempt to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case.
It was just the latest blow to prosecutors charging Trump in the election interference case. The timing of the hearings — just a month before Election Day — creates an impossibly short period for a trial. The Georgia case, in which Trump pleaded not guilty, was delayed by the defendants’ attempt to disqualify Willis after she employed a prosecutor with whom she had a relationship.
Other Trump cases are on hold
Two federal cases against Trump, in which he has also pleaded not guilty, are on hold. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this month on Trump’s sweeping demand for immunity for actions he took while president.
The justices could still issue a definitive ruling, but any ruling that requires more litigation in the lower courts could mean time is running out in the election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, with just five months remaining before the election.
At the same time, multiple disputes in pretrial motions have put the impending federal trial in Florida over Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents on hold. Democrats accused Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon of showing political bias in her rulings.
The impasse on multiple fronts means it may be impossible for the U.S. legal system to hold accountable a former president’s alleged attempt to remain in power against the will of voters before he had a chance to win another term.
In itself, the delay poses a significant threat to American democracy’s attempt to save itself, as it suggests that a future president who acted in the same way as Trump could expect impunity.
Trump’s lack of accountability over 2020 election interference — through a mix of skillful litigation by his lawyers, some counterproductive decisions by prosecutors, and luck — would also greatly boost his chances in the November election.
If Trump loses, his future after already losing a criminal case looks incredibly bleak, with three cases likely to come to trial eventually, carrying huge legal fees. But if Trump wins, he could appoint an attorney general who could halt federal cases.
His Justice Department would certainly make every effort to delay or divert any negative outcome he faces in the Georgia case, as well as the bribery conviction in New York, which is scheduled for sentencing on July 11.
Given the personal interest, it is reasonable to assume that Trump will stop at nothing to regain power at a time when he refuses to guarantee that he will accept the result of the 2024 election.
Ty Cobb, a former Trump White House lawyer, told CNN that Georgia’s October date means “there is no possibility of this case going to trial before the election.” And he added that the chances were increasing that Trump could avoid any legal liability for his actions in 2020 if he wins in 2024.
“It’s very real if he wins the election, it’s not real at all if he loses,” Cobb said. Referring to the federal election interference case and the issue of confidential documents, Cobb said, “Both will end sometime early to mid next year if Trump loses and the Georgia case will likely follow that line.”
History made in Delaware
The slow pace of Trump’s criminal trials contrasts with the efficiency of those faced by Hunter Biden, who is also scheduled to stand trial on tax charges in September.
The cases of the former president and the current president’s son are not analogous, and those involving Trump are extremely complicated.
But they are sure to leave many Democrats marveling at the prospect that the only federal trial intertwined with this year’s election could be one that is targeting Hunter Biden and not Trump, whose actions after the 2020 election have pushed U.S. democracy to the brink.
Joe Biden vowed Monday not to comment on the outcome of a federal trial, but in a statement, he expressed boundless love for his son and his respect for his success in overcoming drug addiction. “I am the president, but I am also a father,” Biden said.
Biden’s heightened rhetoric at Monday’s fundraiser follows a warning from Trump in a Fox News interview broadcast Sunday about the consequences if Judge Juan Merchan imposes any prison sentence after the guilty verdict. last week.
“I’m not sure the public would tolerate that,” the former president said. “I think it would be difficult for the public to accept. You know, at a certain point, there’s a breaking point,” he added.
Some senior Democrats accused Trump of inciting violence in his remarks, which took on a darker complexion given his earlier call for supporters to “fight like hell” before the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“This is clearly Donald Trump once again inciting violence, potential violence, when he is sentenced,” Rep. Adam Schiff told CNN on Sunday (2). The California Democrat accused Trump of issuing “yet another dangerous call for violence.”
The extraordinary intertwining of the 2024 election and the legal cases weighing on Trump and Biden will likely dominate a hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday (4), when Attorney General Merrick Garland will face a new hearing from Republicans.
Garland promised to restore trust in the legal system when he took office after the tumultuous Trump years, ensuring everyone plays by the same rules.
Three years later, he has frustrated much of Washington with a pursuit that seems antiquated in an era when judges, prosecutors and jurors in a rising tide of politically charged cases are under near-constant attack.
But the hostility toward Garland hasn’t just come from Republicans, who seek revenge Tuesday after Trump’s conviction. Democrats worry about the slow pace of federal investigations.
And the White House complained to Garland after special counsel Robert Hur’s report on Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents portrayed the president’s memory as significantly degraded in a report that set off weeks of political fallout.
Garland will also likely face scrutiny over Hunter Biden’s trial.
House Republicans seized on the case to try to damage the president politically, especially after failing to provide any evidence that he benefited from Hunter Biden’s business dealings in an impeachment investigation that failed to move forward.
Republicans celebrated when a plea deal they saw as “favorable” treatment for Hunter Biden collapsed in court.
But the trial of Hunter Biden, as well as a federal corruption trial targeting New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, undermines Republican claims of a biased justice system made after Trump’s verdict in New York last week.
Share:
