Biden And Top Democrats Call Trump A ‘Convicted Felon’ At Least 24 Times Since Verdict

 

Former U.S. President Donald Trump greets supporters during a Turning Point PAC town hall at Dream City Church on June 06, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona

President Joe Biden, his campaign and prominent Democrats have increasingly used the term “convicted felon” to refer to former President Donald Trump since his historic conviction in Manhattan last Thursday—a label the Biden-Harris campaign gave Trump moments after the guilty verdict.

KEY FACTS

The Democratic National Committee ran billboards in Phoenix ahead of Trump’s rally there on Thursday, labeling him a “convicted felon” who is “out for revenge and retribution,” and accusing him of having “already attacked Arizona’s democracy once,” a reference to his unfounded claims of election fraud and alleged role in a “fake electors” scheme in the state.

Biden and his campaign have labeled Trump a convicted felon in a barrage of emails over the past week, with Biden using the term directly at a fundraiser in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Monday, where he told the crowd “for the first time in American history, a former president is convicted—a convicted felon” and “he’s now seeking the office of the presidency.”

Biden’s campaign or the Democratic National Committee have sent at least 16 press releases combined that include the term in reference to Trump, with campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler writing in a statement moments after the verdict was read “convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.”

The pro-Democrat House Majority super PAC has also sent emails to reporters highlighting vulnerable Republicans’ defense of “convicted felon” Trump, accusing many of them of effectively declaring they “support crime” by aligning with Trump.

Prominent Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., labeled Trump a “convicted felon” in speeches on Capitol Hill this week, while Schiff and Raskin have repeatedly used the term in TV interviews in the wake of the verdict.

While some polls show voters’ opinions seem largely unchanged after Trump’s conviction, there are some warning signs for the former president, including a Reuters/Ipsos poll that found 10% of Republicans and 25% of independent voters said they were less likely to vote for Trump in the wake of the conviction.

CHIEF CRITIC

Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt accused Democrats of using the term to distract from other issues, telling Fox Business “for every time the Biden campaign uses the shameful word ‘convicted felon,’ they are not talking about inflation, they are not talking about our wide open southern border that has led to a mass invasion of illegals that are crumbling the infrastructure in every city and community across this great country.” Some Democrats have also suggested the Biden campaign shouldn’t let the verdict outshine other major issues voters care about. Former Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., who lost the 2022 Democratic Senate primary to Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told the Associated Press “the conviction is a big, shiny thing that the media paid a lot of attention to . . . that’s not what the voters care about, and that just kind of indirectly tells them you may not share their priorities.” Rep. Suzan DelBene, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats’ campaign arm, declined to tell the AP whether the committee would use the term in advertising, but added that it could only highlight Republican loyalty to Trump despite his conviction.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

Biden, in his first remarks after the verdict, did not label Trump a “convicted felon,” and instead centered his criticism around defending the U.S. justice system against Trump’s baseless claims that it is rigged to help Biden win the election. The justice system, Biden said from the White House, “should be respected” adding that it is “reckless . . . dangerous” and “irresponsible for anyone to say that it was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.”

BIG NUMBER

49%. That’s the share of Americans who want Trump to end his campaign after his guilty verdict, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted in the two days after the verdict was issued. The results are largely unchanged from April, shortly after Trump was indicted in Manhattan, when 48% of voters said he should suspend his campaign. The survey also found 47% of voters believe the charges against Trump were politically motivated. At the same time, 47% of voters in a June 2-4 Economist/YouGov survey said someone convicted of a felony should not be allowed to serve as president and 30% said they should be, while 23% of voters said they were unsure.

KEY BACKGROUND

Trump became the first current or former president to be convicted of a crime last week when a Manhattan jury found him guilty of hiding hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in an effort to illegally sway the results of the 2016 presidential election. The jury found Trump, or someone at his direction, falsely labeled as legal expenses reimbursements to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen for the $130,000 he paid Daniels to silence her allegations of an affair with Trump. Trump, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, has denied the affair with Daniels and claimed, without evidence, the case was brought by Biden allies to help the president win the election. Trump is set to be sentenced on July 11 and has vowed to appeal the case.