US President Joe Biden said the 2024 presidential race was now in “uncharted territory” and called Donald Trump a “convicted felon” in harsh remarks at a campaign event on Monday, a signal the historic verdict will soon play centre stage on both sides of the campaign trail.
“Folks – the campaign entered uncharted territory last week,” Biden said at a reception in Greenwich, Conn. “For the first time in American history a former president that is a convicted felon is now seeking the office of the Presidency.”
“But as disturbing as that is, more damaging is the all-out assault Donald Trump is making on the American system of justice.”
Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush money trial after a jury unanimously agreed he had falsified business records to cover up allegations of an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump and his allies have raged — and fundraised — on the back of the conviction, but many in the Biden camp had been waiting to see how the historic decision played with voters.
The former president is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just four days before the Republican National Convention where he is all but certain to become the party’s official nominee.
Biden went on to lambaste his predecessor for his constant attacks on the justice system, saying Trump wanted his followers to “believe that it’s rigged.”
“Now, he will be given an opportunity to appeal,” the president said, adding that it was “reckless and dangerous for anyone to say that [a trial] is rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.”
“Nothing could be more dangerous for the country, more dangerous for American democracy,” Biden went on.
Trump has urged the Supreme Court to intervene on his behalf and vowed revenge on those behind the hush money case and the three other indictments he is facing.
“My revenge will be a success,” he said on Fox News this weekend. “These are bad people. These people are sick, and they do things that are so destructive.”
Biden said such remarks demonstrated how dangerous a second Trump term would be for the country, calling his predecessor “unhinged” and a man who doesn’t “deserve to be president, whether or not I’m running.”
“This isn’t the same Trump that got elected in 2016,” Biden said on Monday. “He’s worse.”
