(CNN)– President Joe Biden’s decision to brand his predecessor Donald Trump a “convicted felon” for the first time represents a significant hardening of his rhetoric against his Republican foe 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 following his guilty verdict in the hush money trial in New York last week.
“For the first time in American history, a former president who is a convicted felon is running for president,” Biden said. “But as disturbing as it is, more damaging is the all-out assault Donald Trump is making on the American justice system.”
Other Democratic officials have used that rhetoric. But the phrase gained greater force from the president’s own mouth. Although Republicans have rallied around Trump since his conviction, it remains unclear what the verdict will look like in swing states, where the change of a few thousand votes could decide the November election.
Biden’s comment was another surprising turn in an election tangled between Trump’s multiple legal threats. It came on a day when Biden’s family became embroiled in its own courtroom drama, as Biden’s son Hunter became the first son of a sitting president to go on trial. The younger Biden pleaded not guilty to charges of illegally purchasing and possessing a weapon while he was addicted or abusing drugs. He will also face a tax trial in September.
Last week, Biden noted that Trump had been convicted of 34 felonies and said it was “reckless…dangerous…and irresponsible” for his opponent to say the verdict was rigged. Presidential comments at on-camera fundraisers can often serve as a test bed for the rhetoric that later emerges at public events. But Biden’s sharp tone will undoubtedly lead to accusations from the Trump campaign that the former president’s conviction followed a process of political instrumentalization of the judicial system.
In another significant legal development, Trump received good news from Georgia on Monday. The former president is among multiple defendants in a racketeering conspiracy case for his attempt to steal votes from swing states from Biden’s ranks in the 2020 elections. The Georgia Court of Appeals set oral trials for May 4 October in an effort to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case.
It was the latest blow for prosecutors pursuing Trump over his election interference case. The timing of the arguments — just a month before Election Day — makes it an impossibly short timeline for a trial. The Georgia case, in which Trump pleaded not guilty, was delayed by the defendants’ attempt to disqualify Willis after he employed a prosecutor with whom he had a relationship.
Other cases against Trump are on hold
Two federal cases, in which he also pleaded not guilty, are on a waiting list.
The US Supreme Court is expected to rule this month on Trump’s broad claim for immunity for actions he took while president. The justices could still issue a final ruling, but any decision requiring more litigation in lower courts could mean time runs out on special counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case just five months before Election Day.
At the same time, multiple disputes in pretrial motions froze the impending federal trial in Florida over Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. Democrats accused Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, of showing political bias in her rulings.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump Tower in New York City on May 31. (Credit: Brendan McDermid/Reuters).
The delay on multiple fronts means it may be impossible for the US judicial system to account for a former president’s alleged attempt to stay in power against the will of voters before he has a chance to win another term. In itself, the delay represents 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 avoidance of accountability for 2020 election interference — through a mix of skillful litigation by his lawyers, some counterproductive decisions by prosecutors, and luck — would also greatly raise the stakes of the November election.
If Trump loses, his future after already losing one criminal case looks incredibly bleak, with three cases likely to go to trial involving huge legal expenses. But if Trump wins, he could appoint an attorney general who could stop federal cases in their tracks. And his Justice Department would be sure to do everything possible to delay or avoid any negative outcome he faces in the Georgia case, as well as the New York hush money conviction that must proceed to sentencing on July 11. Given the personal stakes, it is reasonable to assume that Trump will stop at nothing to regain power at a time when he refuses to guarantee acceptance of the outcome of the 2024 election.
Ty Cobb, a former Trump White House aide, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday that the Georgia date set for October means there is “no chance of this case going to trial before the election.” And he added that it increased the chances 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 at all real if he loses,” Cobb said. Referring to the federal election interference case and the classified documents issue, Cobb said, “Both will continue at some point if Trump loses early or mid-next year and the Georgia case will likely continue until then.”
History is made in Delaware
The slow pace of Trump’s criminal trials contrasts with the efficiency of those facing Hunter Biden, who will also face trial on tax charges in September.
The cases of the former president and the son of the current president are not analogous, and those surrounding Trump are enormously complicated. But they are sure to leave many Democrats marveling at the prospect that the only federal trial entangled with this year’s election could be one that targets Hunter Biden and not Trump, whose actions after the 2020 election pushed the border to the brink. American democracy.
Joe Biden pledged this 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 crack addiction. “I’m the president, but I’m also a father,” Biden said.
Biden’s racy rhetoric at fundraising this Monday comes after Trump warned in an interview with Fox News broadcast this Sunday of the consequences if Judge Juan Merchan imposed a prison sentence on him following the verdict of guilt from last week.
“I’m not sure people would put up with it,” the former president said. “I think it would be hard to take. You know, at a certain point, there’s a breakup.” Some senior Democratic officials accused Trump of inciting violence in his statements, which took on a more ominous tone given his past call on his supporters to “fight like hell” before the mass attack by his followers 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 Kasie Hunt on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. The California Democrat accused Trump of making “another dangerous call for violence.”
The extraordinary entanglement of the 2024 election and the legal cases weighing on both Trump and Biden will likely dominate a hearing on Capitol Hill this Tuesday, when Attorney General Merrick Garland faces fresh questioning from Republicans.
Garland promised to restore trust in the legal system when he took office after the tumultuous Trump years, making sure everyone plays by the same rules.
Three years later, he frustrated much of Washington with a search that seems quaint at a time when judges, prosecutors and juries in a proliferating wave of politically charged cases are under near-constant attack.
But the hostility toward Garland has not only come from Republicans, who will seek revenge this 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 reverberations, CNN reported.
Garland is also likely to face scrutiny over Hunter Biden’s trial. House Republicans have seized on the case to try to harm the president politically, especially after failing to provide any evidence that he benefited from Hunter Biden’s business dealings in his failed impeachment inquiry.
Republicans celebrated when a plea deal, which they considered a “favorable” deal for Hunter Biden, collapsed in court. But Hunter Biden’s trial, as well as the federal corruption trial of New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, refute Republican claims about the justice system’s bias following Trump’s verdict in New York last week.
